Plant husbandry – Material distributor with plant manipulating – cultivating or...
Patent
1997-03-21
1999-07-13
Eldred, J. Woodrow
Plant husbandry
Material distributor with plant manipulating, cultivating or...
239 77, B05B 903
Patent
active
059210192
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates both to a spray method and also to spray means, useful for spraying insecticides, herbicides, oils and liquid fertilisers for horticultural and agricultural applications.
Generally the spraying rates of insecticides, herbicides and liquid fertilisers are determined by unit area of land on which it is applied (for example liters per hectare). These rates are normally recommended by the manufacturers.
Due to different soil types and qualities, however, the number of plants, vines and/or fruit trees etc per hectare can significantly vary. The variation in the number of plants per hectare is generally effected by altering the row spacing between rows of plants. Ideally therefore the spraying rates should be determined by the number of plants per hectare and/or the plant canopy sizes and/or volumes and/or the leaf and produce surface area.
Tests are referred to hereunder however which refer to the number of liters per hectare in accordance with convention, but this invention seeks amongst other things to provide a spraying method wherein the size of a canopy of a plant, more particularly a grape vine, can be determined, for two reasons, firstly that the spray heads are maintained at an optimum distance away from foliage and secondly that the spray rate needs to be varied and increased for large canopies, quite independently from the number of hectares. In order to achieve this, there is disclosed in this specification a concept wherein optical or sonar sensors can continuously measure canopy size, and means whereby the spraying pressure can be regulated so that the spraying flow rate can be proportional to the canopy size, reckoned as volume.
One of the most disturbing aspects of spraying, as currently conducted in agriculture, is the excessive use of insecticides, herbicides and other chemicals. This has been recognised in environmental regulations, and policies are being enforced worldwide in order to minimise water and soil contamination due to off target spray losses. This invention therefore has as a main object the provision of means and methods whereby there is less overspray and therefore less usage of chemicals than heretofore, resulting not only in an environmental saving but also a very considerable saving in expense.
In one typical embodiment, use is made of a pair of curved arms of pincer-like or horseshoe shape, hinged above the canopy and extending downwardly over each side. Desirably the arms are angled at hinge points above the canopy, and fan spraying heads are mounted on the arms which can be adjusted up or down, the arms and also rotated to blow into the canopy at a desired angle, both backward and forward with respect to direction of travel and also up and down. This particular configuration of arms was arrived at after many experiments and was chosen for its simplicity of control. A pincer or horseshoe arrangement has the inherent advantage that adjustments to the extension of the pincer results in an approximately equidistant movement of spray heads attached to the arms from the foliage at most points along the arms. As a result, this particular configuration maintains the required distance between the foliage and the spray heads for most canopy cross sectional shapes. This aspect was noted by the Applicant as being an opportunity to implement this arrangement for spraying which would result in an extremely simplified control mechanism as compared with the prior art. The simplified control mechanism for adjusting the spray heads for different sized canopies of foliage results in a significant cost saving in the provision of an adjustable spraying system as compared with the prior art.
PRIOR ART
Applicant has made extensive searches of both Australian and overseas databanks but very little has been disclosed by those searches which is relevant to the present invention. By far the closest reference was the Australian Patent Application 40665/95 in the name of Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd of Israel, the inventor being Gedalyahu Manor and Amos Gev
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