Electrostatic application of pollen sprays: effects of charging field intensity and aerodynamic shear upon deposition and germinability

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industry applications Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 998 - 1009
• Main Authors: Law, S.E., Wetzstein, H.Y., Banerjee, S., Eisikowitch, D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2000; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Agricultural engineering; Atomic layer deposition; Charging; Crops; Deposition; Electrostatics; Industry Applications Society; Insects; Pollen; Production; Shear; Sprayers; Spraying; Sprays; Suspensions
• ISSN: 0093-9994; 1939-9367
• DOI: 10.1109/28.855953

Pollination deficiencies limit the biological production efficiency of certain high-value agricultural crops. To enhance pollination, an aerodynamic-electrostatic spray process has been developed which incorporates electric forces to transfer /spl sim/60-/spl mu/m pollen grains to receptive stigmatic surfaces of flowers. Osmotically balanced carrier-liquid suspensions of almond pollen, pneumatically atomized at up to 276 kPa and induction charged to 12 mC/kg in 1.6-MV/m applied fields, are shown to maintain at least 80% germinability upon electrostatic deposition. Compared with uncharged spray, charged pollen deposition was significantly (/spl prop/=0.01) increased 5.6-fold as averaged across various target orientations. For difficult targets parallel to the spray's air-carrier stream, the electrodeposition benefit for pollen was maximum (12-fold increase) and air-pressure effects were most pronounced.