Air-assisted boom sprayer and spray deposition on bean plants

Abstract

The development of safe pesticide application techniques with low volume rates, frequency and spray drift, along with the need to obtain better control level of crop pest control levels, justify the air-assistance in boom sprayers. The aim of this research was to evaluate the spray deposition on bean plants with different nozzles and volume rates by air-assisted and non-assisted sprayers. A completely randomized experiment was carried out using copper oxide as a tracer (50% metalic copper) for deposit evaluation. The artificial targets were fixed on the upper and under-side of the leaflets, at the top and lower third of the same plants under the spray boom. After application, targets were washed individually with an extracting solution of nitric acid (1.0 mol L-1). The tracer deposition on the artificial targets was quantified by atomic absorption spectrofotometry. The effects of air-assisted spray were not significant in relation to spray deposition 48 days after emergence of the bean plants.