IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i21p8862-d434638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spray Backstop: A Method to Reduce Orchard Spray Drift Potential without Limiting the Spray and Air Delivery

Author

Listed:
  • Alireza Pourreza

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA)

  • Ali Moghimi

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA)

  • Franz J. A. Niederholzer

    (University of California Cooperative Extension, 142 Garden Hwy A, Yuba City, CA 95991, USA)

  • Peter A. Larbi

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA
    Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources—Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, University of California, 9240 S. Riverbend Avenue, Parlier, CA 93648, USA)

  • German Zuniga-Ramirez

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA)

  • Kyle H. Cheung

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA)

  • Farzaneh Khorsandi

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA)

Abstract

Unmanaged spray drift from orchard pesticide application contributes to environmental contamination and causes significant danger to farmworkers, nearby residential areas, and neighbors’ crops. Most drift control approaches do not guarantee adequate and uniform canopy spray coverage. Our goal was to develop a spray backstop system that could block drifting from the top without any negative impact on spray coverage and on-target deposition. The design included a foldable mast and a shade structure that covered the trees from the top. We used a continuous loop sampling to assess and quantify the effectiveness of spray backstop on drift potential reduction. We also collected leaf samples from different sections of trees to compare on-target deposition and coverage. The results showed that the spray backstop system could significantly ( p -Value < 0.01) reduce drift potential from the top (78% on average). While we did not find any statistical difference in overall canopy deposition with and without the backstop system, we observed some improvement in treetops deposition. This experiment’s output suggests that growers may be able to adjust their air-assist sprayers for a more uniform spray coverage without concern about the off-target movement of spray droplets when they employ the spray backstop system.

Suggested Citation

  • Alireza Pourreza & Ali Moghimi & Franz J. A. Niederholzer & Peter A. Larbi & German Zuniga-Ramirez & Kyle H. Cheung & Farzaneh Khorsandi, 2020. "Spray Backstop: A Method to Reduce Orchard Spray Drift Potential without Limiting the Spray and Air Delivery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:8862-:d:434638
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8862/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8862/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muyesaier Tudi & Huada Daniel Ruan & Li Wang & Jia Lyu & Ross Sadler & Des Connell & Cordia Chu & Dung Tri Phung, 2021. "Agriculture Development, Pesticide Application and Its Impact on the Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Ovidiu Ranta & Ovidiu Marian & Mircea Valentin Muntean & Adrian Molnar & Alexandru Bogdan Ghețe & Valentin Crișan & Sorin Stănilă & Tibor Rittner, 2021. "Quality Analysis of Some Spray Parameters When Performing Treatments in Vineyards in Order to Reduce Environment Pollution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-13, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:8862-:d:434638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.