Adaptation of spray dosage in stone‐fruit orchards on the basis of tree row volume

Abstract

The tree row volume (TRV) model was adapted for use in stone-fruit orchards. The number of leaves, leaf area and TRV were determined in apricot, peach, cherry and plum orchards in France and Switzerland. The number of leaves per tree ranged from 2500 to 25 900, and TRV values ranged from 5400 to 28 600 m3 ha-'. Trees were sprayed with a fluorescent tracer. according to TRV, in order to determine the quantity and distribution of tracer deposition in the crown of the trees. For large trees with TRV values above 15 000 m3 ha-', tracer deposits on leaves were lower in the upper half of the crown than in the lower half. The TRV formula developed for pome-fruit trees was accordingly used for spraying stone-fruit trees, but with a 15% increase in spray volume for large trees. Under these conditions, disease control was efficient, and residues of difenoconazole, penconazole and dithianon were below the maximum residue limit. The TRV method was thus found to allow adaptation of spray dosage and volume to the volume of the trees, on condition that sprayers are carefully calibrated and adjusted for each orchard. The TRV concept can be applied to a wide range of pome and stone-fruit orchards and can help to harmonize registration protocols for fungicides and insecticides.

Evaluation of a LiDAR-based 3D-stereoscopic vision system for crop-monitoring applications

“…The canopy characteristics can surely be measured manually: the total volume of the canopy in a row, the so-called ''Tree-Row-Volume", can be estimated using the average height and width of a crop (substantially, it is the envelope volume). This parameter is widely used but this method is very expensive in terms of resources and time, because it should be extrapolated from different manual measurements obtained in the cultivated area (Ruegg et al, 1999;Viret et al, 2005), and it is not completely reliable if applied to non-homogeneous plots of land. Rather, the use of vision sensors on machines can raise the efficiency of this operation.…”

Estimating Vegetation Volume of Coffee Crops Using Images From Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

“…An alternative for improving pesticide application to tree crops is the use of the tree row volume (TRV) method, developed by Byers et al (1971). This method has shown good results when used to calibrate sprayers for pesticide application to fruiting trees (Sutton & Unrath, 1988;Rüegg et al, 1999;Siegfried et al, 2007).…”

Volume application rate adapted to the canopy size in greenhouse tomato crops

“…One method is the "Tree-Row Volume" (TRV) (Byers et al, 1971), whereby the application rate is determined by comparing the crop canopy volume per surface-area unit with the rate applied to a standard crop. This method specifi es the application rates in a more methodical way and has rendered good results in orchards (Sutton and Unrath, 1988;Rüegg et al, 1999;Gil et al, 2007;Siegfried et al, 2007). A simpler system was proposed by Furness et al (1998), called "Unit Canopy Row" (UCR), in which the application rate was determined by each unit of 100 m 3 .…”

“…Quantifying vegetation and its subsequent relation to the spray-application rate are the basis for techniques of crop adapted spraying (CAS) used by researchers (Sutton and Unrath, 1988;Giles et al, 1989;Rüegg et al, 1999;Gil et al, 2007;Pergher and Petris, 2008) for applying plant protection products in different crops. The goal is to achieve a more rational use of sprays according to the real needs of the crop while seeking to protect the environment and human health.…”