Harnessing the Power of AI in Horticulture: Highlights from Hort Connections 2025

At Hort Connections 2025, the session "Harnessing the Power of AI in Horticulture", hosted by Eduardo Barbosa, Hort Innovation R&D Manager, brought together innovators who are redefining the future of growing.  

With support from Hort Innovation, three standout projects showcased how artificial intelligence is being used to solve real-world challenges in horticulture—from weather forecasting to quality control and autonomous farming. 

Jane’s Weather: Precision forecasting for smarter farming 

Josh Cross from Jane’s Weather shared how their collaboration with Hort Innovation has transformed traditional weather forecasting into a hyper-local, AI-powered decision support tool. Born from meteorologist Jane Bunn’s vision, the platform now integrates data from over 2,500 weather stations, including BoM, DPI, and private networks. 

Jane’s AI model fine tunes forecasts up to 18 times daily, helping growers make informed decisions about spraying, irrigation, and crop protection. With features like frost and dew prediction, evapotranspiration (eTo), and pest and disease forecasting on the roadmap, Jane’s Weather is becoming a vital tool for Australian growers. Growers are already singing its praises, stating “Jane’s Weather saves me time, money, and phone calls – it’s the most accurate spray forecast I’ve ever used.” 

Clarifresh: AI-powered quality management 

Elad Mardix, CEO of Clarifresh, introduced to the audience the organisation’s AI-driven quality control platform that’s revolutionising post-harvest processes. By automating inspections and eliminating subjective judgement, Clarifresh doubles testing productivity and reduces produce rejections by up to 20%. 

The mobile app solution, demonstrated live with strawberries, is part of a broader initiative with Hort Innovation to automate defect identification of berries and table grapes. The platform provides real-time analytics, centralized QC data, and actionable insights—helping growers, marketing companies, wholesalers and retailers align on consistent quality standards. 

Polybee: Drones and AI for yield and pollination 

Siddharth Jadhav, founder of Polybee, showcased two groundbreaking solutions during the panel: AI-powered yield forecasting and autonomous, contactless pollination. Using drones and computer vision, Polybee delivers insights on fruit count, ripeness, temperature, and stress indicators with over 95% accuracy. 

The Polybee technology enables growers to plan harvests more precisely, reduce manual passes, and optimise pricing. With turnaround times as fast as 6–12 hours, Polybee’s platform supports real-time decision-making across crops like broccoli, spinach, and strawberries. This technology is also being tested in a protected cropping environment to explore how it could be applied as part of the Growing Horticulture through Protected Cropping project (AS23001). 

“We’re not just forecasting yield, we’re optimising the entire harvest process,” explained Siddharth. 

This session demonstrated how AI is not just a buzzword—it’s a practical, powerful tool reshaping horticulture. With continued collaboration between innovators and growers, the future of growing will be smarter, faster, and more sustainable. 

The Using AI and Machine Learning to Improve Weather Forecasting project (AS23005) is funded through Hort Innovation Frontiers with co-investment from Jane’s Weather and contributions from the Australian Government. 

The Driving On-Farm Productivity with Augmented Technologies for Fruit Growers (AS23002) is funded through Hort Innovation Frontiers with co-investment from Clarifresh and contributions from the Australian Government. 

 The Growing Horticulture Through Protected Cropping Innovation (AS23001) is funded through Hort Innovation Frontiers with co-investment from Polybee and contributions from the Australian Government.