Development Of An Intelligent Sprayer To Optimize Pesticide Applications In Nurseries And Orchards PDF Download

Grape and apple growers in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States typically apply pesticides using airblast sprayers 12-16 times each year to manage insects and disease. However, the airblast sprayer has very low application efficiency with great chemical losses to non-target areas. Intelligent sprayer technology (IST) automatically optimizes spray outputs based on crop canopy architecture to reduce pesticide volume and waste. The integration of disease warning systems with the intelligent technology has the potential to further reduce the amount of fungicide input into an apple production system. This study seeks to validate IST in grape and apple production systems as an economical and environmentally sustainable option to effectively manage insects and disease in these intensively managed systems. In addition, the integration of a summer apple disease warning system with IST in apple orchards to enhance sustainability was tested. Furthermore, it can be difficult attaining grower adoption of new technologies, especially those that require a significant economic investment. For that reason, two demonstration trials were conducted at commercial apple orchards in Ohio where growers evaluated intelligent sprayer technology against their own airblast sprayers retro-fitted with intelligent technology. During a 3-year and 2-year study on grape and apple respectively, yield in IST treated plots was greater than or equivalent to yields in airblast-sprayed plots. In grape, foliar fungal and oomycete disease management using IST at a high spray rate (0.13 L/m3) was comparable to conventional airblast technology, and disease progression was significantly slower than in non-treated control plots (P