PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF RECYCLING SPRAYER IN VINEYARD

M. Tamagnone, P. Balsari, C. Bozzer
A comparison test was carried out in a Barbera vineyard espalier trained, Guyot pruned, in order to assess the performance of a recycling sprayer with respect to a conventional air-assisted sprayer and to a multi-row sprayer. A conventional trailed air-assisted sprayer equipped with an axial fan (Dragone Gamma 600), a multi-row trailed air-assisted sprayer (Unigreen Turbo Teuton FLX) and a tunnel recycling sprayer Bertoni l’Arcobaleno, were compared in order to evaluate the quality of spray distribution in vineyard. Comparison tests were made adopting four different volume application rates: 200, 400, 600 and 800 L/ha, spraying a water solution of yellow Tartrazine dye. Deposits on the leaves were determined by spectrophotometric analysis. On the recycling sprayer further tests were carried out to assess the quality and the amount of the spray mixture recovered through the screens and recycled in the main circuit. Tests were also carried out to evaluate the biological efficacy of the spray application. Spray deposition tests pointed out that when applying volumes between 200 and 400 L/ha the multi-row sprayer and the recycling sprayer were able to reach a level of spray deposition on the target higher with respect to the conventional air-assisted sprayer. Thanks to the contemporary spraying on the two row sides an increment of spray deposits on the leaves between 18% and 30% was obtained. Variations in the spray mixture concentration with respect to the basis one, due to the effect of the liquid recycled in the tunnel sprayer, amounted just to ±4%, a value largely below the thresholds stated for the assessment of the efficiency of the sprayer agitation systems (±15%). The amount of liquid recovered by the tunnel ranged between 40% and 60%. Control of vine diseases obtained operating the recycling sprayer resulted equal to that achieved with the conventional sprayer.
Tamagnone, M., Balsari, P. and Bozzer, C. (2013). PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF RECYCLING SPRAYER IN VINEYARD. Acta Hortic. 978, 199-204
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.978.21
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.978.21
spray deposit, recycling sprayer, multi-row sprayer, volume application rate
English

Acta Horticulturae