A visit to the UK in October was made by the German owner of the Vicar company to some of his customers along with David Sayell from his UK dealer Vitifruit Equipment. The visit threw up some important points regarding how and why their sprayers are popular in Germany and Austria and should be taken seriously in the UK.
The major advantage is the high airflow capacity of the fans enabling coverage of two rows simultaneously, travelling down every other tramline with the advantages of halving the time spent spraying, reducing diesel use and soil compaction with no compromise to disease control. To achieve this and maintain good coverage the advantage is provided by the intensive airflow through the first row of vines and the powerful and precisely directed airflow to the second row.
This intensive and targeted application is of particular interest to organic vineyards. The powerful airflow has the added advantage of ventilating and cleaning the grape bunch zone and can remove loose flower debris, dead plant parts and other deposits thus helping to reduce potential sources of rot.
The variable position air outlets allow for precise directional control into the canopy where needed as the growth season advances; low, medium and high with particular relevance to positioning the top outlet down into the canopy late season.
To apply the correct coverage into the second row it is crucial to have sufficient airflow and this depends on the density of foliage in the first row and the forward driving speed, so it may be necessary to decrease forward speed late season and use the larger blower ( turbine ) particularly in wider alleys and if required, into other taller crops such as in orchards and hop plantations.
