Evaluation of the Wind Field and Deposition Effect of a Novel Air-Assisted Strawberry Sprayer

Abstract

Strawberry is a widely cultivated cash crop in China. In order to control pests and diseases on strawberries, there must be sufficient deposits on the abaxial surfaces of the leaves. Air-assisted technology can effectively increase the deposition on the abaxial surfaces of the leaves; however, most air-assisted equipment is not suitable for application due to the pattern of strawberry planting. Therefore, a novel air-assisted strawberry sprayer was developed, the static and dynamic wind fields were measured using a 3D anemometer, and the effectiveness of the application at different spray angles and wind speeds was evaluated. In addition, a comparison of the deposition effect in the strawberry canopy between the air-assisted strawberry sprayer, knapsack sprayer, and spray gun was conducted. The results showed that in the static wind field test, a difference between the center and edge wind fields was obtained, which was correlated with the distance and the outlet wind speed. In the dynamic wind field test, the wind field was found to be rolling backward during the movement, and an inward vortex was obtained. In the field, the data showed that a spray angle of 30° and a wind speed of 16 m·s−1 had the best deposition on the abaxial surface, with a coverage of 36.5% and 38.3% in the upper canopy and 6.2% and 7.9% in the lower canopy, respectively. Moreover, the air-assisted strawberry sprayer was found to have a higher deposition efficiency on abaxial surfaces than the knapsack sprayer and spray gun at a lower spray volume, the values of which in the upper and lower canopies were 42.8% and 29.7%, respectively. In conclusion, the air-assisted strawberry sprayer has the potential for the crop protection of greenhouse strawberries, and more evaluations are needed to improve the sprayer in the future.

Spray performance of flexible shield canopy opener and rotor wind integrated boom‐sprayer application in soybean: effects on droplet deposition distribution

“…Whether it is the vortex airflow from unmanned aerial vehicle or the parallel airflow from an air‐assisted boom‐sprayer, wind loads are applied to the branches and leaves of the crop canopy by higher wind speeds, forcing flexible branches and leaves to bend and deform, increasing porosity and opening the transport channel for droplets to enter the interior of the crop canopy 43–45 . The droplets can be forced to change their trajectory inside the branch and leaf apertures by the airflow 46–49 . However, research has shown that using vortex airflow can cause more blade displacement and branch disturbance compared to parallel airflow 14 .…”

“…[43][44][45] The droplets can be forced to change their trajectory inside the branch and leaf apertures by the airflow. [46][47][48][49] However, research has shown that using vortex airflow can cause more blade displacement and branch disturbance compared to parallel airflow. 14 Therefore, the rotor wind mode chosen in this paper is more favorable for improving droplet deposition.…”

Effect of airflow angle on abaxial surface deposition in air-assisted spraying

“…Spray deposition on the leaf abaxial surface has been the focus of increasing research attention in recent years ( Maski and Durairaj, 2010 ; Owen-Smith et al., 2019 ; Jiang et al., 2023 ). Air-assisted spraying has been shown to achieve superior deposition on the abaxial surface of leaves in practical application ( Christovam et al., 2010 ; Sinha et al., 2020 ; Xu et al., 2023 ). However, most previous studies have been conducted to test the performance of sprayers.…”

Construction and Application Exploration of Smart Agriculture Based on Big Data Technology

“…This helps farmers determine the most suitable local crops and the best planting time and sowing quantity [4] . In addition, it can also analyze the planting experiment data, so as to master the actual vitality of the seeds, improve the emergence rate, and improve the disease resistance and yield of the crops [5] .…”