Development of a novel precision applicator for spot treatment of granular agrochemical in wild blueberry

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 13751 - 10
• Main Authors: MacEachern, Craig B., Esau, Travis J., Zaman, Qamar U., White, Scott N., Farooque, Aitazaz A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.06.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166; 639/301/1005; 704/172/4081; Agrochemicals; Agrochemicals - pharmacology; Blueberry Plants; Cropping systems; Design; Fertilizers; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Radio frequency identification; Recycling systems; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Valves
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64650-z

While spot spraying has gained increasing popularity in recent years, spot application of granule agrochemical has seen little development. Despite the potential for the technology, there currently exists no commercially available granular applicators capable of spot application. Therefore, the goal of this study was to design, build, and lab evaluate a precision applicator for spot applying granular agrochemical in wild blueberry. The design incorporated a John Deere RC2000 with a custom control box, recirculation system, and electrically actuated valves. All components were modified to fit a Valmar 1255 Twin-Roller. The system receives inputs from a predeveloped prescription map and can actuate each of the twelve valves separately to provide individual orifice control. Casoron® G4 was used as the testing agrochemical and in cycling the product pneumatically for 1 hour incurred no significant product degradation ( p  = 0.110). In lab evaluations, the applicator encountered zero errors in reading prescription maps and actuating the correct valves accordingly. Further, the granule recycling system had zero instances where product built up in the lines or jammed the valves. In all, this project represents the first successful development of a precision granular spot applicator for any cropping system.