Assessment of quality indicators of cotton crop spraying in the strip-till soil cultivation in Volgograd region

Cotton cultivation with striptill soil cultivation is an innovative resourcesaving technology recommended for row crops, including technical, vegetable, melon and potato crops. The proposed method of spraying allows more competent and effective application of working solutions to treat crops, depending on the phase of a plant’s growth and development. The article presents the results of the qualitative research of spraying indicators for cotton crops grown on the experimental plot of NPOP "Innovative Village", Volgograd region. Indicator method was used to estimate the distribution of the working solution on the impacted object and in the treatment strip. The degree of coating a leaf plate with solution drops was determined using a proprietary software product. According to the results of field studies, there have been revealed the dependences of the degree of covering a leaf plate treated with drops of working solution on the spraying method used. Comparison of the results obtained for strip spraying and continuous spraying allows the conclusion about the effectiveness of strip spraying with the side spraying method on the crops of widerow crops. As a result of assessing qualitative indicators it was revealed that the application to strip spraying results in a more stable flow of working solution for the width of the treated strip. Application of side spraying method of spraying working solution promotes redistribution of plant protection agents from interband space to the band of cultivated plants so that to reduce the amount of pesticide on the environment. Assessment of dispersed composition and coating density was carried out using software to calculate the qualitative indicators of spraying based on the graphic distribution of the tonal image of the evaluated object in the file color space. This approach makes it possible to assess the level of environmental safety of the technological process of pesticide spraying, increase labor productivity and reduce the influence of the human factor on the accuracy of assessing the coating indicator strips by the working solution when the obtained research results.