5-15 FB Efficient Delivery

 Tree fruit growers in the Northwest have been asked to respond to a survey asking about their horticultural practices and orchard characteristics. Growers’ responses will help guide the Solid Set Canopy Delivery System for Apples and Cherries, a two-year, USDA-funded project involving research from Washington State University, Cornell University and Michigan State University. The solid set canopy delivery system will be built into an orchard’s trellis system in order to simultaneously deliver inputs orchard-wide. Matt Grieshop is an entomologist working on the project and he described the solid set canopy delivery system.  “Rather than pulling a sprayer through the orchard, you assemble the sprayer  in the form of this irrigation system up in the canopy throughout the trees and deliver your sprays via that system. ” Currently, to protect an orchard from a pest outbreak, a worker must drive a tractor hauling a sprayer up and down between rows of trees.

 There are several inefficiencies in this scenario. The worst is that the orchard manager simply may not have enough equipment to cover a large orchard in a timely manner.We may also be able to get better efficacy from existing pest control materials by reducing chemical drift and application rates.