Development of a recycling sprayer for efficient orchard pesticide application

Pesticide runoff and drift continue to be major problems in orchard spray a pplications. A new orchard sprayer the RECUPAIR (Patent Pending), was desig ned to capture most of the droplets that do not deposit on target trees. Th e RECUPAIR was developed jointly by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada HRDC a nd Universite Laval and a prototype was built for citrus orchards at the Un iversity of Florida. The sprayer consists of an axial-flow fan, over-the-ro w air and liquid ducts, hydraulic nozzles, and a spray capture and re-circu lating system. The spray is discharged horizontally from the far side of th e sprayer and unused droplets are collected on a capture panel located on t he sprayer chassis. Design features and functional mechanisms were evaluate d and discussed. Preliminary results indicated that the sprayer could be ef fective in reducing pesticide wastage in citrus applications.