Automatic spraying is coming: growers are closer than they think to a precision vineyard sprayer

Wines & Vines, July, 2008 by Andrew Landers

RELATED ARTICLE: Highlights

* Advances in field crop technology have not yet reached grapegrowing, according to experts at the North American Conference on Precision Fruit Spraying.

* Information obtained from precision farming tools could potentially save money, reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizer used, and provide more efficient coverage.

* Research is needed on how best to combine current spraying technology with needs specific to the winegrape growing industry.

RELATED ARTICLE: GRAPEGROWING

Putting together a fully automated vineyard sprayer

The ultimate fully automatic vineyard sprayer may comprise many of the aspects shown below. The sprayer could drive along the rows of vines, monitoring the canopy for both canopy volume and absence or presence of vines. Sensors will allow us to monitor the dimensions of the canopy and thus alter both airflow output from the fan and liquid flow (application rate/acre) according to the variable canopy. Patches of diseases or insect activity may have been located previously by scouting the crop, their exact location recorded on a hand-held GPS device. Research at Cornell University has shown how the application rate of spray varies considerably with canopy volume and growth stage in Riesling and Cabernet Franc on VSP trellis. For example, the application rate varies from 16 gallons per acre in early season to 50 gallons per acre in full canopy.