New research shows that spraying from drones can be as effective as ground sprayers.
The evaluation used low-drift nozzles at low volumes of between one and 1.5 gallons per acre (9.35 litres per hectare).
The research was for weed control in turfgrass and was conducted by Dr. Muthukumar Bagavathiannan of Texas A&M University.
“While there are some indications from this research that certain herbicides can be sprayed using RPAAS (drones) without the need for mixing in water, further experimentation is needed for confirmation,” said Dr. Augusto Costa, a researcher with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation who contributed as the study’s first and co-corresponding author.
Dr. Daniel Martin of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service at College Station, Texas, provided aerial application technology collaboration in this research.
Their testing was reported in the Journal of Weed Technology published by the Weed Science Society of America.
