Downwind Spray Drift Assessment for Airblast Sprayer Applications in a Modern Apple Orchard System

HighlightsAirblast sprayer drift potential was evaluated up to 183 m (600 ft) downwind from an orchard edge.A central leader apple orchard was sprayed at dormant and full canopy stage.Higher drift at full canopy stage was likely due to higher wind speeds and lower humidity.String and artificial foliage samplers had higher collection efficiencies than Mylar cards.Abstract. Risk assessment of orchard pesticide spraying is currently based on spray drift estimation using a worst-case scenario (dormant stage). However, most spray applications are conducted during non-dormant canopy growth stages. Such overestimation leads to restrictive operational regulations in pest management activities. Therefore, field data were generated and studied for a mechanistic model that will predict spray drift from airblast spray applications in tree fruit orchards. Spray trials were conducted at dormant and full canopy growth stages in a central leader trained apple orchard. An axial-fan airblast sprayer sprayed fluorescent tracer in the third row from the orchard’s downwind edge, with four passes being one run. A total of 20 runs, i.e., 17 spray runs and three blanks, were performed during each of the two crop growth stages. Mylar cards, artificial foliage (AF), and horizontal strings (HS) were used to quantify drifting spray deposition up to 183 m (600 ft) downwind. Within the orchard, the deposition on card samplers 3 m upwind of the sprayed row was 21.94% ±4.63% (mean ± standard deviation) of applied dose (AD) at dormant stage and 16.02% ±2.86% AD at full canopy stage. Deposition downwind and adjacent (-3 m) to the sprayed row was 17.92% ±2.70% AD and 7.15% ±1.78% AD at dormant and full canopy stages, respectively. Spray drift decreased substantially at the orchard edge to 3.18% ±1.30% AD at dormant stage and 2.30% ±1.16% AD at full canopy stage. Spray drift was very low at 183 m (600 ft) downwind of the orchard, with deposition of 0.002% ±0.003% AD at dormant stage and 0.003% ±0.004% AD at full canopy stage. Deposition data collected at common sampler locations showed that HS and AF samplers collected significantly (p < 0.05) more drifting spray than card samplers. Downwind speeds had a strong linear relationship with spray drift at both growth stages (dormant: R2= 0.80, full canopy: R2= 0.86), while the influence of temperature and humidity could not be directly observed from the collected data. Keywords: Airblast spraying, Deposit samplers, Dormant and full canopy, Drift, Modern orchard systems.