Homburg Holland, in collaboration with Garford, has developed a spraying machine that tackles potato storage in a targeted manner. The SpotSprayer works plant-specific and kills more than 90 percent of unwanted plants.
Until now, says Homburg, potato storage as a problem weed can only be effectively combated by a plant-specific application of glyphosate. In practice this is done with a mechanical control between the rows. In line, this spraying is manual work.
“The potato storage problem is getting bigger and bigger,” says Jack Thibaudier, director of Homburg Holland. “Bad harvesting conditions in combination with mild winters are to blame for this.” The Frisian company wanted to think along about alternatives to weed control as it is done with the field sprayers from their program. “If spraying has to be done, it has to be done as carefully and effectively as possible.”
Homburg combined Garford’s camera technology with newly developed SpotSpray caps. Thibaudier: “We think our SpotSprayer can spray at least 90 percent of the potato storage, with 2 percent crop damage and an average use of 4 liters of glyphosate per hectare.”
To test
To demonstrate the effectiveness, company is participating in a trial in Valthermond in which different techniques are compared. The company also uses a number of machines in sugar beet and onions on arable farms. “By testing a number of crops in the coming season, we want to have the machine on sale from October 2021 and the first deliveries for the season in 2022 are possible.”
