Spray Deposition and Losses to Soil from a Remotely Piloted Aircraft and Airblast Sprayer on Coffee

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have been increasingly used for crop protection in coffee plantations. However, the applications can result in low spray deposition on leaves and higher product losses between rows compared to ground airblast sprayers. This study aimed to evaluate the spray depositio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AgriEngineering 2024-09, Vol.6 (3), p.2385-2394
Main Authors: Cunha, João Paulo Arantes Rodrigues da, Lopes, Luana de Lima, Alves, Caio Oliveira Rodrigues, Alvarenga, Cleyton Batista de
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
application technology
Canopies
coffea arabica
Coffee
Control stability
Crop diseases
Crop dusting
drones
Leaves
Nozzles
Plant protection
Process control
Process controls
Quality standards
Remotely piloted aircraft
Soil analysis
Spectrophotometry
Spray deposition
spray volume
Sprayers
Spraying
Sprays
Statistical process control
Variance analysis
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Summary:Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have been increasingly used for crop protection in coffee plantations. However, the applications can result in low spray deposition on leaves and higher product losses between rows compared to ground airblast sprayers. This study aimed to evaluate the spray deposition on the coffee canopy and potential losses to the soil during application with an RPA and an airblast sprayer at varying spray volumes. The experiment comprised four spray treatments: RPA at 10 L ha−1 and 20 L ha−1, and airblast sprayer at 200 L ha−1 and 300 L ha−1. Leaf deposition was quantified by measuring a tracer on leaves from the lower and upper parts of the coffee canopy using spectrophotometry. Spray losses to the soil were measured by analyzing tracer residues on Petri dishes positioned within the inter-rows and beneath the coffee canopy. Statistical process control was used to analyze spray deposition quality in the study area. Ground-based airblast spraying resulted in the highest overall canopy deposition, while RPA spraying led to greater losses within the inter-rows. No significant difference was observed in spray runoff beneath the canopy between ground-based and aerial applications. Leaf deposition exhibited random variability across all application methods. Therefore, application stability, control, and spray quality standards were maintained.
ISSN:2624-7402
2624-7402
DOI:10.3390/agriengineering6030139