While the researchers have pronounced the Darwin string thinner “good to go,” it’s not considered perfect—not by the Canadian company that’s selling it, nor by Pennsylvania State University agricultural engineer Dr. Paul Heinemann. They’re still tweaking it. “We would like to automate the positioning of the rotating spindle so the operator doesn’t have so much work to do with the steering,” Heinemann told growers at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable ­Convention in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Darwin is now mounted on the front of a tractor, and the driver steers it to follow the tree canopy. Heinemann thinks it would be […]