Pesticide spray coverage: searching for the Goldilocks zone

Getting an airblast sprayer ready to use in an apple orchard involves a fair amount of tweaking. Sprayer pressure, nozzle size, and travel speed may need to be adjusted to spray for insect pests and diseases in the upcoming growing season. The goal is to get adequate coverage. But how can you make pesticide spraying more efficient?

On-Farm Demonstration Trials Show that ‘Proof is in the Pudding’ (or Apple)

On-Farm Demonstration Trials Show that ‘Proof is in the Pudding’ (or Apple)

On-farm demonstration experiments in Iowa-2020: a look at the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) warning system

In 2020 (the first year of our 3-year USDA-CPPM project), on-farm trials were located in two commercial farms in central Iowa...

Does Investing in the Intelligent Sprayer Make Economic Sense?

Conventional airblast sprayers operate in continuous spray mode, so they can’t adjust sprayer flow rate in real time to match canopy conditions. For apple growers, this familiar type of sprayer can do a good job of controlling diseases and insect pests, but it wastes pesticide because much of what goes out the nozzles never hits the target.

Spray Coverage vs. Spray Drift

When apple growers plan their pesticide spray programs, they may think about a couple of important factors: spray coverage and spray drift. What’s the difference? How do we measure spray coverage? How do we manage spray drift?

Warning systems: using environmental knowledge against plant pathogens

Farmers have factored weather conditions into disease management decisions since farming began...

Summer Fungal Fruit Rots and Their Management

As the final cover sprays are applied in apple orchards, you may notice some unsightly spots on your fruit...

Introduction of new laser-guided intelligent spray control system

"...intelligent spray technology is a target-oriented spray control system... product of a decade’s worth of research and development..."

How does an Intelligent Sprayer work?

Do you remember learning in your school science class about how bats use echo-location to find food?

Testing a new spray technology for Midwest apple growers

Have you heard of a cool new sprayer technology for apples? It could be the biggest change in apple spraying since the invention of the airblast sprayer.