THE USE OF WATER SENSITIVE PAPER FOR THE EVALUATION OF SPRAY COVERAGE IN AN APPLE ORCHARD

• Published in: Poljoprivreda (Osijek, Croatia) Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 43 - 49
• Main Authors: Đuro Banaj, Vjekoslav Tadić, Jasmina Lukinac, Dražen Horvat
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Agrobitechnical Sciences Osijek 01.06.2010
• Subjects: air velocity; airflow; apple orchard; mist-blower; water sensitive paper (WSP) coverage
• ISSN: 1330-7142; 1848-8080

Three commercial mist-blowers were tested in an apple orchard at the end of vegetation development in October 2008, using pure water and water sensitive papers (WSP). The width between apples rows was 3.5 m, the average width of tree top was 1.6 m and the average apple height was 3.6 m. All the machines had the same “Albuz ATR 80” red nozzles and the tractor’s PTO had a rotational speed of 540 rpm. The average temperature during testing was 17.05 °C; the average air humidity was 56.55 %, and the average wind speed was 0.9 m/s from the West. The spraying equipment used was: (A) “Tifone Vento” 1500, water levels of 1000 l/ha, maximum. air velocity of 30 m/s and 18638 m3/h of airflow, 14 nozzles, travel velocity of 5 km/h and work pressure of 17 bars; (B) “Myers N1500”, water level of 1000 l/ha, maximum. air velocity of 34 m/s and 36580 m3/h of airflow, 14 nozzles, travel velocity of 5 km/h and work pressure bar of 11 bar; (C) “Hardi Zaturn 1500”, water level of 1000 l/ha, maximum. Air velocity of 38 m/s and 44590 m3/h of airflow, 18 nozzles, travel velocity of 5 km/h and work pressure of 7 bar. The “Tifone” mistblower had 10048 m3/h total amount of air on the left side of the blower and 8590 m3/h on the right side. With this amount of air, the average WSP coverage on the left side was 44.05 %, and on the right was 41.33 %. The“Myers” mistblower had 18120 m3/h total amount of air on the left side of the blower and 18460 m3/h at the right side. With this amount of air, the average WSP coverage on the left side was 33.61 %, and on the right side was 37.98 %. (C) The “Hardi” mistblower had 24940 m3/h total amount of air on the left side of the blower and 19650 m3/h on the right side. With this amount of air, the average WSP coverage on the left side was 45.85 %, and on the right side was 42.47 %. The WSP were photographed by a “Canon EOS 1000D”. The pictures were then converted by “Irfan View 4.0”, and finally elaborated by “Adobe Photoshop”, “Global Lab Image/2” and “Graduate” softwares.