A green and economical weeds control agent suitable for drone

¹ Henan Forestry Vocational College, Luoyang 471002, P. R. China
² Research Institute of Non-timber Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, and Kernel-Apricot Engineering and Technology Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and Key Laboratory of Non-timber Forest Germplasm Enhancement & Utilization of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Zhengzhou 450003, P. R. China

^† Joint first author
^* Corresponding author’s email: poog502@hotmail.com

Abstract

Weeds are one of the main factors affecting orchard yield, fruit quality and economic benefits. However, present methods have been lower effect and high labor intensity. To inhance the effect of weeds control on orchard, a new green and economic agent suitable for drone with choline chloride and eucalyptus oil as the main components was developed. Adopting optimized “3414” test design, the paper studied the prevention and control effect of this new weed control agent on 8 kinds of main weeds in the orchards of the Yellow-Huai Rivers. The results showed that T5 and T12 were significantly (P≤0.05) control the growth speed of 8 kinds of weeds, T4 was only inhibit the growth of Erigeron canadensis, Digitaria sanguinalis and Artemisia annua, T11 was only inhibit the growth of Tribulus terrestris, Humulus scandens and Cyperus rotundus, and T3 and T13 were promote the growth of weeds, which had the worst control effect among all treatments. Combined with the economic benefit analysis, the cost per 667m² of weed control of T12 was 124 RMB, which was the most economical compared with manual weeding and mechanical weeding. Therefore, applying 30g choline chloride, 120 mL eucalyptus oil and 75g sucrose ester to each 667m² is recommended to be popularized as a new green and economical weed control agent in the orchard production of the Yellow-Huai Rivers.