Electrostatic spray and non-electrostatic spray on droplet deposition quality on tomato leaf surface

ABSTRACT: Electrostatic spraying reduces the pesticide loss and environmental pollution caused by droplet drift, reduces the health risk of workers in the process of spraying, and has positive significance for agricultural sustainable development. This is because the electrostatic spray charged droplets will deflect around the target leaf, increasing the amount of pesticide deposition on the surface of the target leaf. In this paper, the optimum charging voltage is +10 kV under the spray pressure of 0.3 MPa by charge-mass ratio measurement and droplet particle size measurement experiments. The charge-to-mass ratio is the highest (3.06 mC/kg) and the Volume Median Diameter (VMD) is the smallest (92.86 μm) when the charging voltage is +10 kV in the charging range from 0 to +12 kV. After the spray pressure (0.3 MPa) and charging voltage (+10 kV) were selected, the droplet movement track, droplet quantity and droplet deposition quality (coverage rate and distribution uniformity) near tomato leaves were compared between electrostatic spray and non-electrostatic spray through observation experiment of droplet deposition movement and indoor sedimentation experiment. Finally, through these two experiments, it was proved from many angles that electrostatic spraying could effectively improve the deposition quality of pesticides on the surface of tomato leaves and reduce the loss of pesticides caused by droplet drift.