Crop disease management depends on
efficient and adequate pesticide
distribution to reduce pest population. Instrument-based methods to
evaluate the spatial distribution of pesticides are available, but
they are not field-compatible because of instrument size, cost, and
extensive sample preparation. The current gold standard of water-sensitive
papers is field-compatible; however, these papers often produce false
positives due to reaction with water from sources other than the pesticide
mixture. Thus, we developed a novel method in which a fluorescent
dye is sprayed over a crop with circles of filter paper (samplers)
attached to the leaves. After collection, a lightbox is used to take
pictures of the samplers, and an algorithm analyzes each image for
percent coverage to visualize the pesticide distribution within the
crop. Our method produces results quickly and inexpensively compared
to current methods and can be applied to any crop to inform best pesticide
application strategies.
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