ARS | Publication request: Wide-swath Spray Application in Ornamental Nurseries with Cannon Air Jet Sprayer

Submitted to: Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International (ASABE)
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: December 20, 2006
Publication Date: June 17, 2007
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/31947
Citation: Zhu, H., Yu, Y., Derksen, R.C., Ozkan, H.E., Krause, C.R. 2007. Wide-swath Spray Application in Ornamental Nurseries with Cannon Air Jet Sprayer. Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International (ASABE), June 17-21, 2007, Minneapolis, MN. Paper No. 071069.

Technical Abstract: Pesticide spray applications in nurseries are usually implemented in the very early morning to avoid chemical exposures to regular workers and to prevent potential drift to nearby residential areas. Conventional sprayers cannot efficiently apply pesticides to many container ornamental crops due to the special planting circumstance. A cannon air jet sprayer was investigated in an effort to use optimal spray techniques to effectively control pest insects or diseases for container ornamental crops. Air velocity, spray deposition, spray coverage and spray spot density on artificial targets inside and outside hydrangea plants at two heights across the spray swath were evaluated and correlated. Treatments included three flow rates, three travel speeds, and two different nozzle settings. Travel speed greatly influenced the spray deposition without plants across the spray swath. With the same flow rate, lower travel speed produced higher spray deposits and coverage across the spray swath. The peak air velocity tended to decrease as the distance from the sprayer increased. However, even at 24 m from the sprayer, the peak air velocity at 20 cm above the ground was higher than 3 m/s in the field without plants, and was about 1.2 m/s inside canopies in the field with hydrangea plants. Spray deposition on targets inside canopies or without canopies increased as the peak air velocities near the targets increased. Under the calm weather conditions, the cannon air jet sprayer could provide fairly uniform spray distributions across the 24 m spray swath.