Abstract
The cultivation of vegetables in greenhouses is characterised by high planting density and environmental conditions that favour the development of pests and diseases. These are mainly controlled using plant protection products applied with a hand-held sprayer. This is inefficient low-tech equipment that is difficult to calibrate. The study evaluates one hand-held spray gun and two hand-held spray lances that are widely used in greenhouse vegetable crops. The tests were carried out on a pepper crop at two different developmental stages. Plant canopy deposition and losses to the ground were quantified using a colorimetric method based on applying a tartrazine solution. The results show that the flat-fan spray lance obtains a more uniform spray distribution in the plant canopy and results in losses to the ground that are between 2 and 2.75 times less than when using the other hand-held sprayers tested.
Highlights
In south-eastern Spain, greenhouse vegetable cultivation has increased substantially over recent years, with the cultivated surface area amounting to around 32,234 ha [1]
integrated pest management programs (IPMs) practices are still only implemented on a small scale and given the high concentration of greenhouses in the area, the risk of environmental pollution due to pesticide use has increased
There were no significant differences in canopy depositions made by the different hand-held sprayers used in the tests (Table 3), the flat-fan spray lance deposited the most in both tests, followed by the trigger spray gun and the rotating-handle spray lance
Summary
In south-eastern Spain, greenhouse vegetable cultivation has increased substantially over recent years, with the cultivated surface area amounting to around 32,234 ha [1]. This has made Almería province one of the leading vegetable cultivation areas in Europe, with a total production of 3.62 million tonnes in the year 2019–2020, representing approximately 25% of the national vegetable production. Pepper is the most important crop, accounting for 26% of the production, followed by tomato and cucumber, at 22% and 16%, respectively [1]. This sector has been very competitive in recent years compared to other production areas due to the relatively low production costs. There are studies that have detected the presence of pesticides in the soil [7,8] as well as in surface and groundwater
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