Computer programs for analysis of droplets sprayed on water sensitive papers

Abstract

The use of water-sensitive papers is an important tool for assessing the quality of pesticide application on crops, but manual analysis is laborious and time-consuming. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the results obtained from four software programs for spray droplet analysis in different scanned images of water-sensitive papers. After spraying, papers with four droplet deposition patterns (varying droplet spectra and densities) were analyzed manually and by means of the following computer programs: CIR, e-Sprinkle, DepositScan and Conta-Gotas. The diameter of the volume and number medians and the number of droplets per target area were studied. There is a strong correlation between the values measured using the different programs and the manual analysis, but there is a great difference between the numerical values measured for the same paper. Thus, it is not advisable to compare results obtained from different programs.