What really is the safest way to shade greenhouses?
Agricultural Spray Drones are great at spraying plant protection products but in the UK and Europe, legislation is yet to catch up, but people of finding uses for them that not many people would have predicted.
Coletta & Tyson Nurseries are one of Europe’s largest specialist growers of ornamental plants. With a capacity to handle over two million plants per day, they currently grow over 100 million ornamental plants each year on their site which covers over 400 acres.
In recent years they have invested into world-leading automation technology and wanted to take their next steps into the future.
So when John called, and asked if our XAG drones could apply their Spring time application of Q4 shading agent to their green houses, it sounded like an interesting challenge.
With 26 hectares of greenhouses spread across 14 locations that needed shading, I realised that this was going to be a big job, but it’s not till you see if from the air that realise just HOW BIG!
Logistics was going to be the key to a smooth operation, that meant, plenty of batteries and a good supply of mixed shading agent.
Fortunately, these big batteries recharge in only 15 mins that they wouldn’t restrict us.
And the ground team got busy mixing up 450 litres of Q4 shading agent ready to refill the drones tanks.
Once the greenhouse was mapped, it’s simply a “tap-on-the-app” and the drone gets to work.
From previous experience we knew that we would get a good even coverage with the drone flying 2 meters above the glass with an application rate of around 600 Litres per hectare.
For the last 15 years XAG Drones have pioneered the use spinning disk applicators, also know as CDA or Controlled Droplet Applicators.
These have two BIG advantages over conventional nozzles:
You can control droplet size accurately without high pressure tanks, but their main advantage is that they just don’t block, even when spraying thicker suspension liquids like paint.
To ensure we were operating within the Visual Line Of Sight rules, we split the greenhouse into 2 sections, so when the drone reaches the end of each run it automatically moves to the next one.
For this application we’d set the drone to spray while transitioning between runs to ensure and we got a good even coverage.
As you can see from the results, the settings have been pretty well dialled in.
The glass was getting well coated which gave ideal shading for plant growing areas
and in main production areas where lots of staff work, we gave a second pass to give even greater shading to help keep temperatures down.
This ability to layer your shading has proved to be a big advantage in optimising conditions in the growing and production areas.
When the drones 20 litre spray tank is empty it pauses to note it’s exact location and then heads straight back to it’s take off point for a refill.
As you can see, the take-off and landing area is restricted to general staff with only the ground crew given access to comply with the Drone Code good practice and local Health and Safety rules.
Although it’s not necessary to swop out the battery each time you refill the tank, it’s a good practice to get into and as you can see, it only takes a few seconds.
It also makes good logistical sense to always have a full tank ready to swop in, but I wouldn’t recommend filling lots of tanks long in advance in-case the shading agent starts to settle out.
Efficiency is all in the timing!
Refilled and recharged, the drone is ready to take off and get back to work.
It rapidly flies back to the point where the tank ran out, drops to the programmed spraying height, and goes back to work.
With a 20 litre tank and an application rate of 600 Litres per hectare, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that you’ll be repeating this process pretty regularly on large greenhouses.
For this type of intense spray work we find that we’re refilling very 5 to 6 minutes, so getting your “pit-stops” slick makes a big impact on efficiency.
But if you’re watching this video, you’ll know already that regular refills on the ground are much preferable and a whole lot safer than the old method of having men balancing on gutters while they drag a long, heavy spray hoses from one end to the other.
So when the tank is empty again, you know exactly what happens next…
It’s a rapid return to the take off point for a quick tank and battery swop.
You soon get into a steady rhythm and with a little practice, you’ll soon be coating a hectare before you break for lunch and another before you call it a day in the evening.
When seen from the air it’s an impressive job.
When this shot was taken, the area to on the right had had 2 coats and the area to the left only one.
Not only had this taken half the time it would have taken to do manually,
we’d only used half the usual amount of shading agent,
and best of all, no one had had to risk their lives to do it.
Thanks XAG.
5 апр 2022
