Title :
Electrostatic application of pollen sprays: effects of charging field intensity and aerodynamic shear upon deposition and germinability
Author :
Law, S.E. ; Banerjee, S. ; Wetzstein, H.Y. ; Eisikowitch, D.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Biol. & Agric. Eng., Georgia Univ., Athens, GA, USA
Abstract :
Pollination deficiencies limit the biological production efficiency of certain high-value agricultural crops. To enhance pollination, an aerodynamic-electrostatic spray process has been developed which incorporates electric forces to transfer ~60 μm pollen grains to receptive stigmatic surfaces of flowers. Osmotically-balanced carrier-liquid suspensions of almond pollen, pneumatically atomized at up to 276 kPa and induction charged to 12 mC/kg in 1.6 MV/m applied fields, are shown to maintain at least 80% germinability upon electrostatic deposition. Compared with uncharged spray, charged pollen deposition was significantly (α=0.01) increased 5.6-fold as averaged across various target orientations. For difficult targets parallel to the spray´s air-carrier stream, the electrodeposition benefit for pollen was maximum (12-fold) and air-pressure effects mast pronounced
Keywords :
aerodynamics; agriculture; electrostatic devices; electrostatics; spray coating techniques; 276 kPa; aerodynamic shear; almond pollen; charging field intensity; deposition; electrostatic device applications; electrostatic spray process; flowers; germinability; osmotically-balanced carrier-liquid suspensions; pollen spray application; stigmatic surfaces; target orientations; Aerodynamics; Agricultural engineering; Atomic layer deposition; Crops; Electrostatics; Insects; Production; Spraying; Suspensions; USA Councils;
Conference_Titel :
Industry Applications Conference, 1996. Thirty-First IAS Annual Meeting, IAS '96., Conference Record of the 1996 IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3544-9
DOI :
10.1109/IAS.1996.563832
