Below is an article published in the agriculture portal, Frehsplaza, with an interview with our Italy sales manager, Luca Bellettini, about treatment with Martignani electrostatic sprayers in walnuts .
Walnut: saving time, water and chemicals is possible
In recent years, walnut cultivation has become highly specialized and thousands of hectares have been planted with this crop. Immediately, however, there was a need for suitable sprayers in terms of efficiency and saving both water and active ingredients.
“For crops such as walnut,” explains Luca Bellettini of the Martignani company, “it is necessary to know how to choose the right sprayer in order to save time, water, chemical and therefore money with each treatment. You don’t sell a tool by the book: first you need to know the characteristics of the walnut grove and then offer a machine that is as precise as a new dress.”
Droplet micronization, targeted spray, electrostatic charge, and low volume-these are the key concepts for a sprayer that must avoid dripping and drift.
“In walnut we have considerable heights to cover,” Bellettini points out, “and we cannot afford to water the first few meters of the crop well and only patchily the rest. To achieve uniformity, we at Martignani take some steps. We use a turbine fan, which creates a volume of air at high speed that goes to micronize the water droplets with the active suspension. These are carried by the airflow for uniform and complete dye coverage. We don’t use diaphragm pumps but rotary pumps, with stronger seals, and then we have a number of other tricks that characterize us.”
The greater efficiency of Martignani sprayers, as far as nuts are concerned, has also been noticed abroad: California, South Africa, Australia and France are some of the nations to which the equipment is regularly exported. In Italy, many companies in the Veneto region, where hundreds of acres of walnut trees have been planted recently, have chosen this technology.
Remote control of every treatment-related parameter
Agriculture 4.0 has also entered the sprayer industry overwhelmingly. These devices allow operators the Remote control of every treatment-related parameter through the cloud platform which allows all data to be viewed on the move through smartphone, tablet or pc, e.g., correct dose and treatment parameters; fluid dynamic parameters; mapping of treatment performed; control and adjustment of consumption; adjustments according to weather changes.
“The best treatment, saving as much as possible,” Bellettini concludes, “is also possible in walnut, through a sprayer that knows how to adapt to the characteristics of this crop.
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