But back to the grassroots -- the pollinator is designed to boost artificial pollination rates in kiwifruit orchards by repeatedly blowing pollen into the orchard's canopy.
Early trials suggest the machine is capable of raising production and producing greater returns for growers.
Horwood says artificial pollination devices currently in use blew the expensive pollen up into the plant canopy just once.
He says studies had been conducted and showed about one-third of the pollination outcome was by artificial means and bees took care of the remaining two-thirds.
For Horwood, the concern was the wasted pollen that settled on the ground instead of on a flower.
He believed if it was recycled into the canopy it would have a better chance of pollinating a flower and therefore increase production for the same cost.
Working with Klein Ovink, they together devised the Pollensmart, which recycles pollen that would otherwise fall to the ground by using a vacuum intake.
It re-introduces that pollen to the system and it is blown into the canopy not once, but five times -- and all in one pass.
They have a patent on the Pollensmart and plan to go to market once they have completed another season of testing.
During its first season it had limited testing on orchards but the results were encouraging.
This year, they plan to use the Pollensmart on more properties and be more scientific about gathering crucial data.
But they say they have the formula right, and by boosting pollination efficiency, growers should be able to use less pollen and increase fruit size and quality.
Horwood says increasing fruit weight by just one gram could raise orchard gate returns by about $1000 a hectare.
"Plus with better pollination you get fewer misshapen fruit, each kiwifruit is likely to be bigger and to have a higher dry matter content," he says.
The one-off prototype looks to be in demand this season, tweaked for even better performance.
Follow Pollensmart and other products from The Wrangler at thewrangler.co.nz
