Utility of Hooded Broadcast Sprayer in Reducing Herbicide Particle Drift in Cotton

Use of hooded sprayers to mitigate spray particle drift during pesticide applications in cotton has not been investigated. Therefore, experiments were conducted in cotton fields in 2021 and 2022 to compare particle drift of dicamba applied with open and hooded broadcast sprayers at six different spray qualities: Fine (F), Medium (M), Coarse (C), Very Coarse (VC), Extremely Coarse (EC), and Ultra Coarse (UC). A fluorescent tracer dye was mixed and applied with the dicamba solution to measure drift deposition at different downwind distances up to 105 m from the target area. Results showed particle drift for F and M spray qualities applied with a hooded sprayer were reduced up to 94% and 77%, respectively, out to 10 m downwind from the application area compared to the open boom sprayer. Hooded sprayer decreased particle drift for C and VC spray qualities as well but only for short distances downwind (≤ 5 m). Sprayer type did not affect the particle drift for EC and UC spray qualities and it was also significantly lower than other spray qualities across both sprayer types. From 20 to 60 m downwind, dicamba applications with hooded sprayer exhibited as much as 42% less drift than open boom sprayer applications regardless of the spray quality. These data suggested that hooded sprayers are effective in reducing particle drift in cotton and thus can be utilized as a viable spray drift management technique for herbicide applications in cotton.