Effects of charging voltage, application speed, target height, and orientation upon charged spray deposition on leaf abaxial and adaxial surfaces

Wastage of agricultural chemicals and ensuing environmental pollution is an issue, where ineffective spray deposition is a major concern with conventional pesticide application methods. Electrostatic spraying is known to be one of the most effective methods to improve leaf abaxial (underside) surface deposition, overall deposition, and distribution on the plant targets. Deposition of charged sprays on leaf abaxial and adaxial (upper) surfaces as influenced by the spray charging voltage (system), application speed (operational), target height and orientation (target) parameters was studied in the laboratory. An air-assisted electrostatic induction spray charging system attached to a moving carriage was used to apply charged spray at uniform application (ground) speeds. Spray deposition (101–71 μm NMD), determined using a fluorescent tracer technique increased with charging (0–5.5 mC kg−1) on leaf abaxial and decreased with charging on adaxial surface. The deposition was higher on abaxial (0.66–1.33 μg cm−2) at 30° below (horizontal plane) and on adaxial (0.78–1.79 μg cm−2) at 0° (horizontal) target orientation for lower (0.278 m s−1) application speed. At all target heights, abaxial deposition increased with charging voltage (0–4.0 kV) for medium application speed (0.417 m s−1) and adaxial deposition decreased with charging voltage for lower application speed (0.278 m s−1). The medium application speed with higher charging voltage was optimum for abaxial and adaxial deposition. The droplet velocity and charging voltage were the key factors for obtaining desired spray deposition on targets. All the selected factors including target orientation (O), application speed (S), target surface (L), and charging voltage (V), and their interactions except between O and S were significant at lower (0.35 m) and medium (0.65 m) target heights. All the factors and their interactions except between O and V were significant at higher (0.95 m) height. Electrostatically charged spray improved the underside (abaxial) and overall deposition. The deposition was substantially influenced by factors such as charging voltage, application speed, plant target height, and target orientation.