Department of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, Canada.
Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 14;14(1):13751. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-64650-z.
While spot spraying has gained increasing popularity in recent years, spot application of granule agrochemical has seen little development. Despite the potential for the technology, there currently exists no commercially available granular applicators capable of spot application. Therefore, the goal of this study was to design, build, and lab evaluate a precision applicator for spot applying granular agrochemical in wild blueberry. The design incorporated a John Deere RC2000 with a custom control box, recirculation system, and electrically actuated valves. All components were modified to fit a Valmar 1255 Twin-Roller. The system receives inputs from a predeveloped prescription map and can actuate each of the twelve valves separately to provide individual orifice control. Casoron® G4 was used as the testing agrochemical and in cycling the product pneumatically for 1 hour incurred no significant product degradation (p = 0.110). In lab evaluations, the applicator encountered zero errors in reading prescription maps and actuating the correct valves accordingly. Further, the granule recycling system had zero instances where product built up in the lines or jammed the valves. In all, this project represents the first successful development of a precision granular spot applicator for any cropping system.
虽然近年来点状喷雾越来越受欢迎，但颗粒状农用化学品的点状施用却鲜有发展。尽管这项技术有潜力，但目前还没有商业上可用的能够进行点状施用的颗粒状施药器。因此，本研究的目的是设计、制造和实验室评估一种用于蓝莓中颗粒状农用化学品点状施用的精密施药器。该设计采用了约翰迪尔 RC2000 与定制控制箱、再循环系统和电动阀相结合。所有部件都经过修改，以适应 Valmar 1255 Twin-Roller。该系统接收预开发的处方图输入，并可以单独启动十二个阀中的每一个，以提供单独的孔口控制。Casoron® G4 被用作测试农用化学品，在气动循环 1 小时后没有发生显著的产品降解（p = 0.110）。在实验室评估中，施药器在读取处方图和相应地启动正确的阀方面没有出现任何错误。此外，颗粒回收系统在管道中没有出现产品堆积或堵塞阀门的情况。总的来说，该项目代表了为任何作物系统开发精密颗粒状点状施药器的首次成功尝试。
