One of the challenges for efficient spraying is choosing the right time to apply the product. This is because the efficiency depends on the weather, temperature, and plant growth stage. Late applications are essential to the corn crops, but it can be difficult to be done due to the size of the plant.
The corn yield is defined by 5 items:
1 – Number of plants per hectare;
2 – Number of ears per plant;
3 – Number of rows per ear;
4 – Number of grains per row;
5 – Grain weight.
The number of grains per row and grain weight are defined towards the end of the crop cycle. The number of grains per row is defined in the V12 stage (when there are 12 leaves on the plant) and in the VT (corn tasseling stage). The grain weight is measured from R1 to R6 stages. This means that the weight is measured from the moment when the plant is silking until it reaches its maximum height.
Therefore, late applications are essential for corn crops, as they bring several benefits to the plant. One of them is to protect the plants from diseases until the end of their productive cycle. Another benefit is that it becomes possible to control pests during the crop’s last stage
According to studies performed by the MS Foundation for seven years on corn crops, late applications of fungicides (after the corn tasseling stage) bring on average an increase in crop productivity yield of 11%.
In order to perform late applications, farmers have two options: airplane spraying or self-propelled machine applications. The advantage that the self-propelled sprayer application has on airplane spraying is the quality of the droplets when reaching the target. This is because part of the chemicals ends up getting dispersed in the air during aerial spraying. In other words, more chemicals actually reach the target with self-propelled spraying than with aerial spraying.
An additional positive point is that self-propelled sprayers with up to 3 meters of boom working height and ground clearance of 2 meters are now available in the market, bringing excellent crop results, ensuring sanity and high yields.