Night Trials Martignani by L'Informatore Agrario

The field trials we carry out during this period for all of Italy for us are crucial. During these demonstrations that we do toward evening, you can see the perfection of the dye coverage achieved in treatments made with Martignani Sprayers, thanks to a fluorescent product.

Below is an article about our trials written in the trade magazine l’Informatore Agrario.

As the sun went down, thanks to the use of the UV lamp, it was possible to appreciate the uniformity of both the dye coverage of the treated vegetation and the size of the droplets created by the sprayer.

In specialized crops, proper spraying of pesticides aims both to reduce drift by avoiding unnecessary waste and dangerous contamination of the environment and to ensure uniformity of product distribution over the vegetation without product accumulation and dripping on it. Existing methods for testing effectiveness and uniformity of distribution include the use of fluorescent pigment solutions. This technique allows informatoreagrario.it to visually check, by means of special UV lamps, the size of the droplets and the uniformity with which they have deposited on the foliage, thus evaluating the work of the sprayer. Last July 12, at the Monteci winery in Pescantina, Verona, the Speroni agricultural machinery dealership in Verona, with the support of technicians from Romagna-based manufacturer Martignani, organized a demonstration evening among the rows of vines to test the effectiveness of the sprayer Martignani Phantom NewPort20: a wheeled and trailed model with a 1,000 L tank whose structure is well suited to the Veronese reality characterized by vineyards located mostly on hills and terraces where slope and reduced maneuvering space are a limiting factor for traditional construction sites. The Phantom NewPort20 features the distributor unit consisting of fan and 4 outlets, separate from the tank. The former is directly connected to the tractor’s 3-point hitch while the latter is attached to the distributor apparatus via a pivot system that allows for better maneuverability in the field with turning radius within 6 meters.

The sprayer we examined was equipped with four outlets to treat four rows of plants simultaneously: the two rows adjacent to the work path were covered by the two lower outlets, and the remaining two rows on either side of the work path were covered by the two outlets mounted on the turret. The sprayer, powered by a Same Frutteto S 105 tractor with a Category 4 cab, was set to operate at a forward speed of 5.3 km/hour. As the sun set, the use of the UV lamp made it possible to appreciate the uniformity of both the dye coverage of the treated vegetation and the size of the droplets produced by the sprayer. Thanks to its fully pneumatic spraying system, the sprayer operated at a low volume of application (150 L/hectare), generating a high airflow velocity (70 m/sec). The high-velocity air passing through the vane nozzles with a 4-mm orifice breaks the water jet into minute droplets (120–130 microns) and carries them toward the canopy; the operating pressure is 1.5 bar, and the air flow rate is 10,000 m³/hour. The result made it possible to visually verify the uniformity of the sprayed solution’s distribution across the entire vegetation, which, according to calculations performed by technician Martignani based on the parameters listed above, averaged around 1,500 droplets/cm².
L’informatore Agrario, July 2022