Optimization of Herbicide Use: Study on Spreading and Evaporation Characteristics of Glyphosate-Organic Silicone Mixture Droplets on Weed Leaves

Herbicide deposition rate can be affected by the leaf surface features of weeds and have a significant impact on the overall efficacy. In this paper, an orthogonal experiment was conducted to investigate the differences of droplet evaporation and spreading characteristics corresponding to weed leaf surface with hairy, waxy and rough (ridged) structures. Three weed species—Descurainia sophia, Lepidium lotifolium, and Lolium temulentum—were included in the study, representing these three leaf structures respectively. Glyphosate sprays with organic silicone surfactant in different concentrations were composed for the test. Single droplets with two diameters of 0.05 μL and 0.1 μL were deposited on the leaves to evaluate the evaporation and spreading characteristics. A digital camera was used and the evaporation duration and the maximum droplet coverage images could be captured and extracted from the recorded videos. The Image Processing Toolbox in Matlab was applied to segment the images for droplet and leaf background and the binary images’ pixel numbers were counted for coverage area calculation. The results revealed that the evaporation duration was reduced with the increase of the organic silicone concentration, while the spread area was expanded. The droplet spread more widely and evaporated faster on D. sophia leaves than on the leaves with L. lotifolium and L. temulentum surfaces. The spreading area and evaporation duration varied much faster on L. lotifolium leaves than on the leaves of other weed species. The droplet sizes affected spreading more significantly on L. temulentum leaf surface, as the spreading procedure of small size droplets was restrained by the groove structure. The results of this study would benefit the consideration of the farmers when selecting the proper nozzle code and the determining of the surfactant mixture in order to optimize the use of herbicides like glyphosate.