The Impact of Spray Adjuvants on Solution Physical Properties and Spray Droplet Size

摘要

Over the past several years, numerous anecdotes from aerial applicators have surfaced concerning observations of increased numbers of fine droplets seen in the applied spray clouds, often associated with tank mixtures that contain crop-oil concentrates (COCs) and foliar fertilizers (FFs). Efforts were made herein to correlate surface tension and viscosity to spray droplet size under a variety of aerial application conditions, but these efforts were unsuccessful. In addition, spray mixtures were examined to compare relative evaporation rates. Researchers are encouraged to actively pursue this line of work. The addition of several adjuvants and FFs were found to significantly affect spray droplet size, so applicators should pay careful attention to spray tank composition when making aerial spray applications.