Project Number: 3607-21000-009-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 29, 2003
End Date: Oct 28, 2008

Objective:
Develop, for horticultural, greenhouse, floral, nursery and landscape crops (1) new methods for assessing relationship of chemical/biopesticide application efficiency (especially coverage) to pest control efficacy; (2) new agricultural machine system for delivering reduced risk fungicides, pesticides and/or biopesticide-control agents; (3) new computer imaging systems for assessing pesticide application efficacy. Participate in cooperative research on automated production/protection technology.

Approach:
Will explore controlled injector designs for pesticide mixing accuracy and lag time in nozzle delivery and develop system transfer functions. Will examine surfactants and drift retardants for stability and ability to cut droplet reflection/drift. Will seek ways to improve canopy penetration and coverage in horticultural and nursery crops with shielding, airassistance, electrostatics and adjuvants. Sprayer configurations with two or more crossflow fans will be studied for reducing drift from orchard and nursery applications. Will use bioassay and chemical-tracer methods and scanning electron microscopy/electron beam analysis to assay drift and distribution. Will define a fan-pattern nozzle shear index and determine shear effect on application viability of bacillus thuringiensis and entomopathogenic nematodes biopesticides. Prototype disk and/or blade equipment with depth control will be investigated for soil injection of liquid encapsulated formulations.