Drones Take Flight in the Nursery: How Two Disciplines Built Something Neither Could Alone (Part 1)
S02:E04

Drones Take Flight in the Nursery: How Two Disciplines Built Something Neither Could Alone (Part 1)

University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Little Rock, AR
•

Episode description

Episode Description

Sometimes the most interesting plant science doesn’t come from a plant person at all. In this special two-part episode, Ping sits down with two collaborators who’ve spent fifteen years figuring out how drones can work in nursery and greenhouse production — Dr. Jim Robbins, a retired University of Arkansas extension specialist who’s loved plants since he was fifteen, and Dr. Joe Maja, an engineer who freely admits he wasn’t a plant person before the two of them met. Their accidental partnership, sparked by a 2009 question about counting plants in a field nursery, is the thread that runs through the whole conversation.

Part 1 is the grower’s field guide. What actually counts as a “drone,” and why does 55 pounds matter so much? Which license do you need — Part 107, Part 137, or both — and who regulates what? What are the five things a nursery can realistically do with a drone right now, from five-hundred-dollar marketing cameras to RFID inventory readers Joe is shrinking small enough to fly? And the question Ping keeps circling back to: does any of this actually pencil out, or should you just hire someone to fly for you?

Whether you’re a commercial grower weighing your first purchase, a student curious about precision ag, or a plant lover who likes a good origin story, this one rewards a full listen. Part 2 takes the conversation deeper into the RFID inventory work itself.

Listen Time: 66:20

Follow Along with the Transcript

In This Episode

Guests

  • Dr. James “Jim” Robbins — Extension Specialist and Professor in commercial ornamental horticulture (retired), University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Twenty-three years supporting green-industry businesses in nursery production and woody plant evaluation; the past fifteen spent deep in drone work.
  • Dr. Joe Maja — Director, Center for Applied AI for Sustainable Agriculture, South Carolina State University. Engineer specializing in robotics, unmanned aerial systems, remote sensing, and applying AI to agriculture.

Main Topics

  • Welcome and introductions (00:00)
  • Jim’s journey from a Wisconsin nursery to drone pioneer — and a serendipitous 2009 collaboration (03:01)
  • The 2009 inventory question that started fifteen years of work (04:45)
  • Why interdisciplinary collaboration matters in modern agriculture (10:38)
  • Introducing UAVs: the 55-pound line, multi-rotor vs. fixed-wing (15:24)
  • Licensing: Part 107, Part 137, and who regulates what (21:15)
  • A field guide to drone types and sensors (25:34)
  • The five drone applications — and where nurseries use them most (28:39)
  • The most-adopted application: simple images and video (34:36)
  • Greenhouse vs. nursery, and the case for a practice drone (36:08)
  • Putting a system together: equipment, payloads, and bundles (40:04)
  • From image to answer: software, services, and the economics (43:43)
  • A fact sheet on three ownership scenarios (49:09)
  • Liquid to granular: spray drones, fire-ant bait, and smart flight software (53:36)
  • The ornamental challenge: diversity, variability, and a software-smart future (60:16)
  • Closing (65:26)

Key Highlights

  • An origin story worth keeping. A field nursery in the Pacific Northwest asked Jim in 2009 whether inventory could be automated. That single question — and his surprise that manual counting was still the norm — led him back to Arkansas, to engineer Joe Maja, and to fifteen years of collaboration.
  • The 55-pound rule. When a drone plus its payload lifts off at under 55 pounds, the FAA calls it “small,” and licensing is very achievable. Cross that line — which spray drones do quickly — and you’re in a more involved regulatory category.
  • Five applications, ranked by realism. Marketing/sales imagery, asset tracking, plant inventory (RFID), aerial application (spray and spread), and crop monitoring. The two “low-hanging fruit” — still images and video — are affordable enough that Jim thinks every operation should own a small drone.
  • The economics is the real question. Jim and Joe co-wrote an extension fact sheet with an agricultural economist laying out three ownership scenarios — do it all yourself, a hybrid, or hire it out entirely — across a five-year return.
  • The ornamental handicap. Row-crop monoculture is far easier to automate than a nursery growing 300–600 different crops, each with its own spectral signature. Joe’s bet for the next decade: smarter software and AI, not new hardware.

Key Quotes

“The choice shouldn’t be driven by the platform itself. It should be driven by the application. Whether it’s imaging, monitoring, or spraying, the key question is: what problems are you trying to solve?” — Dr. Joe Maja

“Think of your driver’s license — just a regular driver’s license. But if you wanted to be a certified CDL, it’s a much more expensive and involved process. And the same is true once we jump above 55 pounds.” — Dr. Jim Robbins

“The outdoor environment is very rough on engineered solutions.” — Dr. Jim Robbins

“I wasn’t a plant person before working with James, and my training was purely in engineering, so I approached everything from a systems and problem-solving perspective.” — Dr. Joe Maja

“I think the future solution is less about different hardware and more about smarter software.” — Dr. Joe Maja

Educational Highlights

  • UAV vs. UAS. Both terms describe the same family of aircraft. If the payload is a sprayer or a sensor, you might call the whole thing an unmanned aerial system; if you’re just flying the aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicle.
  • Multi-rotor vs. fixed-wing. Multi-rotor drones (quadcopters, hexacopters) hover and maneuver precisely — ideal for the tighter, more variable space of a nursery. Fixed-wing platforms fly like airplanes, covering large areas efficiently but needing more room and offering less control in confined spaces.
  • Part 107 vs. Part 137. Part 107 certifies you as a commercial drone pilot — achievable even without an aviation background, with the exam covering airspace classification, weather, and operational safety. Part 137 is the additional, more paperwork-heavy certification required to apply pesticides or agricultural chemicals from the air, often involving state agencies too.
  • Who regulates what. Anything to do with flying an aircraft in the national airspace is the sole responsibility of the FAA. The moment you apply a chemical, a state agency — for example, Arkansas’s agriculture department, pest control division — may enter the picture.
  • The sensor toolbox. Drone imaging can use standard RGB cameras, multispectral sensors, thermal sensors, hyperspectral cameras, and even LiDAR, depending on the detail needed. Remote sensing can flag water stress, heat stress, weed infestations, or chemical damage before the human eye catches them.
  • Why bundles matter. A sensor needs its own power source, a trigger linked to the remote control, and a way to store and transfer data in flight. Pre-integrated bundles solve that electronic configuration so growers can focus on choosing the right setup rather than building from scratch.
  • The liquid-to-granular swap. Newer spray drones let you pull out the liquid tank and drop in an interchangeable granular tank with a cyclone spreader — a standardized mechanical and electrical interface that makes fire-ant bait application especially efficient, since bait doesn’t need overlapping passes and packs low bulk density.
  • Spectral signatures and “taxa.” Each plant species reflects light differently based on leaf structure, pigmentation, and canopy architecture, so a model tuned for one taxa may fail on another — the core reason ornamental automation lags behind monoculture row crops.

Resources & Links

  • Website: bandbpod.com
  • Extension fact sheet (the one Jim mentions): “Planning for Financial Risks Associated with Using sUAS in Agriculture” — University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, FSA6153 (Robbins, Rainey, Maja, Shew, and Weems, 2020). Lays out the three ownership scenarios — buy everything, buy the aircraft/sensor but outsource image processing, or hire it all out — with a first-year cost table and a five-year projection, using a vegetation-index (NDVI) objective as the worked example: https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/pdf/FSA6153.pdf
  • Companion fact sheet: “Drone Pilot Certification and Aircraft Registration” — University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, FSA6150 (covers Part 107 and registration): https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/pdf/FSA-6150.pdf
  • Plant-counting / plant-inventory software services — search “plant inventory software” for companies that process uploaded aerial images into plant counts
  • FAA Part 107 (commercial drone pilot certification) and FAA Part 137 (agricultural aircraft operations)

About Blooms and Beyond

Blooms and Beyond explores plant history, culture, and management through the lens of science. Whether you’re a commercial grower seeking practical solutions, a student exploring careers in horticulture, or simply someone who loves plants and their stories, there’s something here for you. Hosted by Dr. Ping Yu of the University of Georgia, each episode features interviews with experts who share enchanting stories, cutting-edge research, and practical wisdom from the world of horticulture.

Your benefit: After each episode, commercial growers will have at least one useful tip for their operation, and plant enthusiasts will have an interesting fact to share. That’s how we spread plant power to more people and make our environment a little better.

Credits

Host: Dr. Ping Yu Producer: Rich Braman Guests: Dr. James “Jim” Robbins, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture (retired); Dr. Joe Maja, Center for Applied AI for Sustainable Agriculture, South Carolina State University

Episode Release Date: June 21, 2026 Episode Length: 66:20

“Till next time, stay healthy and go plants!” 🌱