Orchard spray demonstrations on Aircheck certification and optimal spraying will be occurring in various locations in Quebec co-ordinated by Vincent Philion, IRDA. Growers from Ontario are welcome to attend. The demonstrations will be in English and then translated into French. Grower questions will also be translated. These demonstrations will cover the following steps:
1) Improved air distribution of air check certified sprayers is the starting point which will enables the rest of the optimization. Without good air distribution, it’s simply not advisable to follow the rest of the steps as it will lead to either bad coverage or drift if you try to compensate bad coverage.
2) Determine the forward speed based on row width. Easy to implement, just adjust speed according to the block you’re spraying. Since pressure is maintained constant at the optimum for the nozzles, volume sprayed (and thus dosage) varies per block. Wide trees get more liquid (slower driving speed) than narrow rows (higher driving speed).
The only complication comes from tall vs small trees: you must have a switch to turn off top nozzles in low tree blocks.
3) Fan speed is set such that spray stays in the row. The trick in adjusting fan speed separately from forward speed is by having predetermined combinations on the gear box. All the grower has to do is select gear and rpm to match the speed of the block. In case of wind, you need another gear setting to maintain forward speed and fight wind with a higher fan speed. But the key is really not to overshoot.
In most blocks, the technique results in higher ground speed, and lower fan speed. This reduces costs, noise, drift, higher deposition, etc.
Here are the locations and dates of the workshops. The last workshop on October 26th will have a demonstration of droplet deposition and distribution with UV spray dyes using different sprayer settings.
Verger Cœur de pomme
19 Rang Sainte-Sophie, Oka, QC J0N 1E0
Sunday, October 21st – 1:oo to 4:00 pm
Verger Pierre Tremblay et fils
375 Rang de la Montagne, Mont-Saint-Grégoire, QC J0J 1K0
Monday, October 22nd – 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Cidrerie Milton
5 QC-137, Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton, QC J0E 2C0
Monday, October 22nd – 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Vergers et Jardins Caouette S.E.N.C
36 Chemin Lamartine E, Lamartine, QC G0R 1X0
Thursday, October 25– 12:00 to 3:00 pm
Cidrerie Verger Ferland
380 Chemin de la Station, Compton, QC J0B 1L0
Friday, October 26– 4:00 to 7:00 pm
Source : ONfruit