Factors Affecting Droplet Loss behind Canopies with Air-Assisted Sprayers Used for Fruit Trees

Abstract

Air-assisted sprayers are widely employed in orchards, but inappropriate spray parameters can lead to large droplet losses, pesticide waste, and environmental pollution. To investigate the factors affecting the droplet loss of an air-assisted sprayer behind canopies, a two-factor, five-level full experiment was conducted in an actual orchard, where the two factors were the power gradient and foliage area volume density (FAVD). In addition, the location of the sampling point was also considered in the data analysis, including horizontal distance, forward distance, and height. The results show that all factors significantly affected droplet coverage (p-value < 0.01). The droplet coverage showed an increase and then a decrease with an increasing power gradient, and the maximum coverage was measured at power gradient P3 (forward speed: 0.49 m/s, spray pressure: 0.30 MPa, and spray flow rate: 7.13 L/min) or P4 (forward speed: 0.58 m/s, spray pressure: 0.35 MPa, and spray flow rate: 8.44 L/min). The effect of FAVD on droplet coverage had obvious regularity, and this regularity did not change with the power gradient. At different positions behind canopies, the droplet coverage had great differences. The droplet coverage gradually decreases with increasing horizontal distance and height, while increasing with forward distance. This study provides a reference for the air-assisted sprayers to reduce droplet loss, and data support for subsequent research on precision spraying based on FAVD.