CID Bio-Science, Inc.

CID Bio-Science, Inc. Plant science tools that work where you work. For over 25 years, CID Bio-Science, Inc. Visit www.felixinstruments.com to learn more.

has been designing instruments for agricultural and environmental research. We specialize in creating light, compact tools that are fully functional on-site. Our instruments provide data on demand with no need for lab analysis with research applications including: photosynthesis, canopy analysis, leaf area, spectroscopy, and root function. CID is made up of engineers, scientists, assemblers, machi

nists, technicians, and businesspeople who have dedicated our careers to building tools for plant physiology research. Our Application Scientists and Sales staff work directly with science and agricultural professionals to equip them with the instruments that will best meet their needs. After decades of engineering tools for plant science, our subsidiary company, Felix Instruments-Applied Food Science, is providing a new line of sensing tools for commercial post-harvest applications. Headquartered in Camas, Washington in the United States, CID is represented by distributors in 44 countries around the world and is an expert in developing new global markets. Committed to the public good, CID considers our customers, distributors, vendors and public community in each of our actions. CID Bio-Science is proud to be a U.S. manufacturer—designing and assembling all products in Camas, Washington, USA, and supporting fellow businesses by sourcing materials locally whenever possible.

Is this the new closed-loop farming we will see in 2027?
05/28/2026

Is this the new closed-loop farming we will see in 2027?

What if flood recovery isn’t about bigger plants, but better-functioning plants?This week’s Wednesday Research Review lo...
05/27/2026

What if flood recovery isn’t about bigger plants, but better-functioning plants?

This week’s Wednesday Research Review looks at rice flooding during the jointing stage.

Researchers found that controlled irrigation helped reduce yield loss by maintaining higher photosynthesis, balancing root systems, and supporting panicle retention and seed setting.

The CI-340 helped measure what the eye can’t always see: whether leaves were still photosynthesizing after stress.

Takeaway: after flooding, don’t just check canopy size. Check whether the crop is still set up to protect yield.

What do you look at first after crop stress? Check out the full study below ⬇️

05/21/2026

Predicting Plant Disease Before It’s Visible with AI

Plant disease is usually diagnosed after symptoms show up. But spectral data can catch subtle changes earlier, before the plant “looks” sick.

That’s what makes this cassava disease model interesting, and why it could matter for crops like citrus.

Watch this clip to see how these researchers utilized the early signals.

“What’s happening below the soil surface could be shaping crop performance more than we realize.”This week’s Wednesday R...
05/20/2026

“What’s happening below the soil surface could be shaping crop performance more than we realize.”

This week’s Wednesday Research Review looked at how underground HVDC power cables affect crops by warming the root zone over time.

Researchers simulated soil heating from cables and found that elevated root-zone temperatures generally reduced root growth, biomass, and yield in crops such as spring barley and wheat, while also increasing some grain quality traits, such as protein content.

One crop stood out though: sugar beet actually showed increased biomass and yield under the heat treatment.

To track what was happening underground, researchers used an In-Situ Root Imager, which allowed them to monitor root growth throughout the season without digging up plants or disturbing the soil. The imaging revealed that deeper root development declined under elevated soil temperatures, even when aboveground yield effects became less obvious.

Why does this matter?

As more power infrastructure moves underground, agriculture will increasingly need to understand how soil temperature, root development, compaction, and water movement interact over time.

A few takeaways worth thinking about:
• Root health can change before yield losses become visible
• Soil disturbance + heat may create bigger first-year impacts
• Crop response to underground heat is highly crop-specific
• Quality changes don’t always mean better market value

What other belowground factors do you think agriculture underestimates today?

Full study below

Most of what matters in soil happens out of sight.A field can look quiet from above while roots are actively changing be...
05/19/2026

Most of what matters in soil happens out of sight.

A field can look quiet from above while roots are actively changing below the surface. They move deeper after dry periods. They branch into zones with better structure. They slow down in compacted layers. They leave behind carbon, open pathways for water, and help shape the soil long after the crop is gone.

For soil scientists, the challenge is that digging often gives you only one moment in time, and it can disturb the system you are trying to understand.

That is where root imaging becomes useful.

With a Root Imager, researchers can return to the same belowground location again and again, watching root growth, depth, density, and turnover develop over time.

Instead of asking, “What did the roots look like when we sampled?”

You can start asking, “How did this root system respond as the soil changed?”

Most green wall research still borrows a metric from forests and fields. That is exactly where things get interesting.Le...
05/14/2026

Most green wall research still borrows a metric from forests and fields. That is exactly where things get interesting.

Leaf Area Index, or LAI, helps measure how much leaf surface is packed into a canopy.

In crops and forests, that usually means leaf area over ground area.

But vertical greening systems are not growing across the ground.

They are growing up walls.

So LAI has to shift from a horizontal measurement to a vertical one: leaf area compared to wall area.

That matters because LAI is tied to the benefits people expect from green walls:

• cooling
• shading
• energy savings
• air pollution capture
• noise reduction
• plant health

The real question is not just “how green is the wall?”

It is: how much functional leaf surface is actually doing the work?

Our recent article breaks down why LAI matters, how it is measured in vertical greening systems, and why the method depends on the type of system.

Read the full article: Importance and Measurement of Leaf Area Index in Vertical Greening Systems: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05tbN-0

Most growers think about nitrogen and phosphorus first.But what if silicon is quietly influencing yield, nutrient effici...
05/13/2026

Most growers think about nitrogen and phosphorus first.

But what if silicon is quietly influencing yield, nutrient efficiency, and plant performance in ways we’ve been overlooking?

This week’s Wednesday Research Review looked at a new study on how soil silica levels affect annual plants across grasses, legumes, and broadleaf species.

Researchers found that higher silica levels increased leaf silicon concentrations across all plant groups, with some species showing up to a 6x increase.

But the bigger takeaway:
Plants often produced more seeds under higher silica conditions, even when growth rates slowed down.

The study also found evidence that some plants may use silicon as a lower-cost structural material, rather than relying as heavily on carbon.

To measure these changes, researchers used the CI-203 Leaf Area Meter from CID Bio-Science to analyze leaf area and calculate key plant traits like:
• specific leaf area
• tissue density
• dry matter content

Why does this matter?

Because silica management may influence:
• nutrient efficiency
• reproductive success
• plant resilience
• fertilizer strategy

One of the clearest reminders from this paper:
More biomass doesn’t always mean better performance.

What role do you think silicon plays in your production system or area of agriculture?

Full Study Link in the comments!

Just shy of 1000 published studies and counting: the CI-202 Portable Laser Leaf Area Meter from CID Bio-Science is helpi...
05/12/2026

Just shy of 1000 published studies and counting: the CI-202 Portable Laser Leaf Area Meter from CID Bio-Science is helping advance leaf area, plant growth, and crop health research worldwide!

05/06/2026

What if plant performance depends less on how CO₂ enters the leaf, and more on what happens after it gets inside?

Research on black cottonwood found that northern genotypes had higher photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and mesophyll conductance, indicating they moved CO₂ more efficiently within the leaf.

A key factor was carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme involved in the transport of internal CO₂. When researchers inhibited it, photosynthesis and mesophyll conductance dropped.

They also used the Leaf Spectrometer from CID Bio-Science to measure leaf absorptance under different blue-to-red light conditions, thereby improving mesophyll conductance calculations.

The takeaway for agriculture: better plant performance is not just about inputs. It is about how efficiently plants move and use resources internally.

Read the full study here: https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0343964

Plant growth regulators can help crops photosynthesize faster, but they are not fertilizers, and results depend heavily ...
05/05/2026

Plant growth regulators can help crops photosynthesize faster, but they are not fertilizers, and results depend heavily on timing, crop type, and application method.

In this newsletter, we break down how PGRs affect chlorophyll, canopy structure, stress tolerance, fruit quality, and yield, plus where they can help or hurt.

Also inside: West Coast Produce Show updates, postharvest decline insights, root imaging resources, and a Smithsonian feature on native fungi helping endangered trees recover.

Read the latest newsletter and see what’s shaping plant science, produce quality, and postharvest tech this season:

https://viewstripo.email/3a495695-5388-4104-bfa3-2604f9abbfb81777395262366

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