Spray Backstop: A Method to Reduce Orchard Spray Drift Potential without Limiting the Spray and Air Delivery

Unmanaged spray drift from orchard pesticide application contributes to environmental contamination and causes significant danger to farmworkers, nearby residential areas, and neighbors’ crops. Most drift control approaches do not guarantee adequate and uniform canopy spray coverage. Our goal was to develop a spray backstop system that could block drifting from the top without any negative impact on spray coverage and on-target deposition. The design included a foldable mast and a shade structure that covered the trees from the top. We used a continuous loop sampling to assess and quantify the effectiveness of spray backstop on drift potential reduction. We also collected leaf samples from different sections of trees to compare on-target deposition and coverage. The results showed that the spray backstop system could significantly (p-Value < 0.01) reduce drift potential from the top (78% on average). While we did not find any statistical difference in overall canopy deposition with and without the backstop system, we observed some improvement in treetops deposition. This experiment’s output suggests that growers may be able to adjust their air-assist sprayers for a more uniform spray coverage without concern about the off-target movement of spray droplets when they employ the spray backstop system.