Water Quality for Spraying

The Quality of Water for spraying is a very critical factor for optimizing the performance agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. However, little or no careful attention is given to this factor among crop growers, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries

This could largely be primarily due to the knowledge gap about the influence of water quality on the effectiveness and efficiency of the chemicals and fertilizers used in spraying crops.

Factors Affecting the Quality of Spray Water

There are primarily 2 know factors the influence the quality of spray water and it suitability for use in spraying agricultural input:

• The pH of the Water: the pH of the water determines the degree of hardness of the water, Hard water are characterized by the accumulation of calcium and magnesium in the water leading to an increase in the pH value of the water. High pH significantly interferes with the stability and effectiveness of active ingredients in phytosanitry products, especially pesticides and herbicides which depends on the pH of the water to maintain the half-life and integrity of the products.
• The Surface tension of water: due to the waxy nature of the leaves and other plant parts, water tend to separate itself from surface of the leaves to form droplets. This phenomenon is due to the surface tension of water caused by the cohesion and bonding together of water molecules when they come in contact with the waxy layers of leaves.

Effect of Water Quality on Active Ingredients and treatments

The Ideal pH for maintaining the integrity of active ingredients and optimizing the performance of phytosanitry products and fertilizer is between 5 - 5.5, However hard water has a pH value higher than 8. At that level, the rate of breakdown of active ingredients increase leading to decreased product performance

Furthermore, the surface tension of the water used for treatment determine the dispersal, adhesion and penetration of active ingredient and fertilizers into the plant. High surface tension decreases the spreading and adhesion of treatment mixture on the leaves, it’s therefore necessary to lower the surface tension of the water to ensure full coverage of the mixture and maximize the impact of the treatment.

Economic Impact of Poor Water Quality

Relative to application of agricultural inputs through foliar spray, a water is considered to be of poor quality when it is having high pH and high surface tension.

If the pH and surface tension of the water are not regulated before introducing the chemicals and fertilizers into the water, there are economic losses ranging from loss of product effectiveness due to rapid breakdown of active ingredients, to losses resulting from inability of the mixture to adhere to and penetrate into the plant tissues

These Losses increases the total amount of chemicals and fertilizers used, which increases the cost of production and other environment cost of chemical residues in the soil.

It is therefore necessary to optimize the quality of your treatment water in order to get the best from every investment made on your crops.