Quality Analysis of Some Spray Parameters When Performing Treatments in Vineyards in Order to Reduce Environment Pollution

Ovidiu Ranta,Alexandru Bogdan Ghețe,Ovidiu Marian,Mircea Valentin Muntean,Tibor Rittner,Adrian Molnar,Valentin Crișan,Sorin Stănilă

doi:10.3390/su13147780

Ovidiu Ranta, Alexandru Bogdan Ghețe + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147780

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Abstract

There is a worldwide trend that supports the rational use of chemicals in agriculture. It has become common knowledge that irresponsible application of pesticides can cause food security issues, by endangering human and animal health while also having negative environmental consequences. The aim of this experiment was to assess the qualitative parameters of spraying treatments in vineyards. To achieve this, a vineyard and orchard sprayer machine was used for the application of treatments under a gradient of pressures (3, 5, 7, 9 bar). Water-sensitive collectors were placed at three heights (0.8 m, 1.5 m, 2.5 m). Following spraying was determined using DepositScan: the volume median diameter characterization of droplets (DV 1, DV 5, DV 9), and coverage degrees of sprayings. Results indicated that best coverage degree and larger droplets tend to be deposited 1.5 m from the ground, which corresponds with the highest proximity to the positioning of the nozzles of the machine during application, and lowest coverage is found at the top, where droplets deposited also tend to be smaller. For the anti-drift nozzle model used in the study, the best coverage was obtained at a pressure of 5 bar. For sustainability of agricultural practices and rational use of pesticides, more research is required for optimization of increased precision spraying that could ensure high coverage at lower doses of chemicals and coarse droplets. In this way the quantity of product sprayed is expected to be reduced, due to minimization of off-target losses and increased efficiency. This can ensure that negative environmental impacts are lowered. Improved treatment application at higher positioning of the canopy remains a challenge and shall receive more attention.

Highlights

Plant protection is one of the most important branches of crop production, which makes it possible to prevent crop losses resulting from threats connected to the harmful activity of pests and diseases
10% of the sprayed volume was in fine and very fine droplets having sizes less than 207.67–244.65 μm, half of the sprayed volume was in droplets smaller or larger than 497.66–640.71 μm and only 10% of the volume sprayed was of ultra-coarse droplets larger than 749.16–1003.5 μm, depending on the pressure gradient
This trend can be explained by the fact that under increased pressure the droplets tend to decrease in size, a fact that determines that only a small percentage of droplets have larger size at highest pressure

Summary

Introduction

Plant protection is one of the most important branches of crop production, which makes it possible to prevent crop losses resulting from threats connected to the harmful activity of pests and diseases. One of the methods against diseases and pests that harm the culturing of plants is the chemical method, which makes it necessary to use powder or liquid chemicals called pesticides. If in the case of field crops the method of pulverization of the solution is hydraulic, in the case of application of plant protection treatments in vineyards the method is hydropneumatic. This method uses an installation that raises the pressure of the spray solution up to around 20 bar and inserts it into a high-speed air current for additional fragmentation of the jet, resulting in small droplets. This method uses an installation that raises the pressure of the spray solution up to around 20 bar and inserts it into a high-speed air current for additional fragmentation of the jet, resulting in small droplets. 4.0/).

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