Spray retention assment combining high-speed shadow imagery and fluorescence techniques

Droplet behaviour during impact affects retention by leaves. The increase of droplet adhesion to plant leaves is the objective when applying crop protection products, while droplet bouncing and fragmentation are usually seen as detrimental to spray retention. However, observation of droplet impacts on barley using high speed imaging showed that fragmentation impact outcome can occur in two different wetting regimes: Cassie-Baxter or Wenzel’s regime. In the latter, a fraction of the droplet is anchored in the surface roughness, what contributes to retention. Three mixtures were sprayed on excised barley leaves with an 11003 flat-fan nozzle operating at 0.2 MPa. Simultaneous measurements were performed using high speed imaging for droplet impact characterisation. A fluorescent tracer was added to the spray mixture for retention assessment. Retention was related to impact type considering the fraction of the droplet remaining on the leaf surface after a droplet splashing occurring in Wenzel’s wetting regime. This fraction varied from 28‒46% depending on the spray mixture and was correlated to the Volume Median Diameter DV0.5 of the impacting droplets.