Electrostatic spraying of liquid pesticide

Abstract

One of the disadvantages of the conventional spraying of pesticide is that only a part of sprayed pesticide is retained by the crops, but the rest is deposited in unwanted places, possibly causing environmental pollution. Electrostatic spraying is considered to be one of the most suitable methods of overcoming these difficulties. However, for several reasons, the method is not used in practice, but is still in the development stage. Since a rotating cup atomizer showed better droplet formation and charging characteristics than others tested in our preliminary investigation, the electrostatic spraying method was examined by using a “pseudo-plant” in the laboratory. The results showed a remarkable improvement in the deposition on leaves. Then, a shower-type sprayer was constructed and tested for spraying bean plants. The deposition on the entire foliage was very much improved with this type of sprayer, especially on the rear surface of the leaves. Because the effectiveness of the electrostatic force with a shower-type sprayer is limited to shorter plants, the blowing-air type was developed, which aims at a better performance for taller plants. The results showed fairly good deposition performance.