Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as emerging plant protection machinery, have the advantages of high operational efficiency, high speed, and low drift. The current study aimed to elucidate the characteristics of droplet distribution and drift, control efficiency on cotton aphids and spider mites, and attachment and absorption of cotton leaves during UAV spraying. Kromekote card and filter paper are used as samplers to collect droplets, and the droplet density, coverage rate, deposition, and drift percentage are statistically analyzed. The pooled results showed that the droplet uniformity, the droplet coverage rate, the deposition, and the drifting ability are higher when the UAV flight height was 2 m. The control effects by UAV spraying on cotton aphids and spider mites were 63.7% and 61.3%, respectively. These values are slightly inferior to those obtained through boom spraying. Cotton leaf attachment and absorption of spirodiclofen after UAV spraying were slightly lower than those after boom spraying, therefore, the control efficiency of cotton pests is slightly different. According to the different flight height operations by the UAV sprayer, the drift capability of the droplets at 2 m flight height was large, and the droplet uniformity and deposition were satisfactory. The research results could provide the theoretical basis and technical support for UAV operation.
Highlights
Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is the main industry of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and is of great significance to the economic and social development of Xinjiang [1,2]
A one-way analysis of variance was conducted for droplet deposition and drift in treatment 2 and treatment 3 to verify the significance effect of flight height on the experimental results (Table 4)
The significant effect of flight height on the deposition and drift of droplets is shown in Table 4: the flight height has a significant impact on droplet deposition (p = 0.022 < 0.05), the flight height has a highly significant impact on droplet drift (p = 0.0013 < 0.01)
Summary
Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is the main industry of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and is of great significance to the economic and social development of Xinjiang [1,2]. Most cotton pesticide operations are carried out by using large-volume ground machinery in Xinjiang, which results in rolling the cotton plant, hitting the bolls, pulling the cotton branch, hitting the opened balls off, water and pesticide wastage, and reduces the yield and quality of cotton. These operations waste water and pesticides and reduce cotton quality and yield. It is a bottleneck and technical issue that restricts the quality and efficiency of cotton production in Xinjiang. The accurate application of pesticide technology will become an inevitable demand for the development of modern agriculture
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