A quarter of sprays are insurance
The growers we’ve talked to describe roughly 25–30% of passes as insurance against outbreaks that never come. Chemicals, labor, fuel, and reentry time, spent on a problem that wasn’t there.
Crop risk intelligence · California vineyards
Know which vineyard blocks need a mildew spray this week.
AgriOS gives California wine grape growers and PCAs a weekly Spray, Watch, or Hold call for every block by combining mildew weather pressure, spray history, scouting observations, ground-level imagery, and PCA-reviewed outcomes.
Who’s building this
Christopher Hamel — Cal Poly computer science, building from California’s central coast.
AgriOS started with a question I kept hearing from growers and PCAs around San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles: “I know I’m overspraying — I just don’t know which passes to skip.” That gap — between the decision a grower has to make every week and the evidence they have to make it with — is what AgriOS exists to close. I’m building it in conversation with central-coast growers and PCAs, and grounded in the published plant-pathology research I study at Cal Poly.
The cost of guessing
Most vineyards spray on a calendar. The pressure doesn’t follow a calendar.
In conversations with vineyard managers and PCAs across California, the same pattern keeps coming up.
The catastrophic miss costs everything
A single missed powdery mildew window can wipe out a season’s margin on a block. Most economic loss comes from a handful of events — not the routine.
Existing tools tell you what already happened
Weather stations report the past. Scouting apps log what was seen. Spray records prove what was done. None of them combine those signals with disease-risk science to tell you what is about to build on your block — or read the photos you already take to confirm what is actually in the canopy.
Decisions live in spreadsheets and group texts
The most important crop-protection decision of the week is made on instinct, on a calendar, and on the most cautious assumption available. That’s expensive in both directions at once.
A second opinion on every spray
Block-level powdery mildew risk, explained in plain language.
AgriOS is one system built from two layers that work together. The first layer reads the scouting photos you already take on your phone to confirm and grade what is actually in your canopy. The second layer combines that ground-level read with what is building in the weather, your crop stage, the established powdery mildew risk science, and the spray history you already keep — and turns it into one weekly call per block. Every call comes with the reasoning in plain language, cites the agronomic rule behind it, and says so when the evidence is thin.
AgriOS is not a replacement for your agronomist, your scout, or your judgment. It is a defensible second opinion on every spray decision you make, every week of the season.
Where AgriOS sits in your stack. Next to your weather app, your scouting app, and your spray-records software — not on top of them. AgriOS doesn’t replicate what those tools do well. It tells you what they don’t: what is about to build on each block, what your latest scouting photos confirm, and how confident the call is.
How it works
Three steps. Your phone is the sensor.
AgriOS meets your operation where it is today. If you have the phone in your pocket and the spray records you already keep, you have everything we need.
Map your blocks
Add your vineyard blocks and basic variety context. AgriOS focuses on one decision: powdery mildew.
Scout like you already do — your phone is the sensor
Take photos on your normal scouting walks. AgriOS reads them to confirm and grade what is actually in the canopy. No drones, no satellites, no new hardware — just the camera in your pocket and the spray records you already keep.
Get a call that explains itself
Every Monday, each block is ranked Spray, Watch, or Hold. The call combines what is building from weather and published disease-risk science with what your scouting photos showed, cites the agronomic rule behind it, and tells you how confident it is. Share it with your PCA.
What we’re trying to do for growers
Three outcomes we measure honestly.
We do not promise yield gains. We do not promise abstract pesticide reductions. We’ll measure these outcomes with every grower we work with and report what we find — including when the call is wrong.
Cut the sprays you don't need
Track every pass you skip on our recommendation and what happens after. An honest skip-and-outcome log per block, not marketing math.
- Per-block skip log
- Outcome tracking
- Season-end report
Catch the catastrophic miss
Early-warning windows on powdery mildew pressure. A single missed mildew window can do more damage than a year of routine inefficiency.
- Block-level risk score
- Plain-language reasoning
- Shared PCA view
An honest scoreboard you can defend
Every recommendation is logged with its inputs and reasoning. With your PCA in the loop, each call gets checked against what actually happened, building toward a season-end comparison of our calls to the outcomes — and the system is built to get sharper on your blocks the more you use it.
- Inputs and reasoning captured
- PCA-confirmed outcomes
- Season-end scoreboard
Pilot program
Design partners wanted for California vineyard powdery mildew pilots.
AgriOS is taking signups from vineyard operations and PCAs who want a season-long scoreboard: calls made, sprays avoided, misses counted, and outcomes reviewed block by block.
Real objections, answered honestly
Questions growers and PCAs ask before they say yes.
Is this drones or satellite imagery?
No. AgriOS reads the scouting photos you already take on your phone during normal walks. No drones, no satellites, no new hardware to install. The camera in your pocket is the only sensor.
Does it replace my PCA or agronomist?
No, and we would push back if you tried to use it that way. AgriOS is a defensible second opinion — the same block-level picture between PCA visits, with the reasoning shown plainly. Your PCA still confirms what is actually happening in the canopy and helps calibrate the call on your specific blocks. They stay central.
How is this different from a weather app or a scouting app?
Weather apps tell you what the weather will be. Scouting apps record what you saw. Neither combines the two with disease-risk science to tell you what pressure is actually building on your block, or reads your scouting photos to confirm what is in the canopy. That is the gap AgriOS sits in.
Which crop and disease?
California wine grapes, powdery mildew. We are deliberately narrow on the first decision before we extend. If you grow something else, we will say so honestly when you ask.
How accurate is it? Does it learn?
What we care about is the explanation behind each call, calibration to your specific blocks, confirmation from your own scouting photos, and an honest track record. Every call gets logged, and you and your PCA check it against what actually happened — so over a season you build a real scoreboard, and the system is built to get sharper on your blocks the more you use it. We'd rather show you that record than make an accuracy claim we haven't earned.
What does it cost?
The waitlist is free. Early users help shape the product and the pricing. When we charge, we expect to be in the range of a single avoided spray per block per season — not per acre.