Author: Brent Warneke

About Brent Warneke: Brent is a Faculty Research Assistant at Oregon State University working on improving chemical use efficiency in specialty crops with sensor controlled airblast sprayers. His focus is on management of plant pathogens such as grape powdery mildew. Brent is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys rock climbing, skiing, backpacking, fishing, and everything in between.

Posts by Brent Warneke

Sensor-controlled sprayers for specialty crop production

Posted on December 15, 2022 (August 28, 2023)

Many of the application technologies used in specialty crop production today are based on axial fan airblast sprayers (Figure 1). Airblast sprayers were first developed in the 1950s when orchard trees were 6 meters tall or more; today 2-4 meter tall trees are typical. Airblast sprayers are versatile, reliable, and can be modified to fit […]

Pesticide redistribution: an important aspect of synthetic pesticides

Posted on January 25, 2022 (January 25, 2022)

What is Redistribution? If you’re a sprayer operator with some experience behind you, you may have applied mercury arsenate, nicotine, Paris green, or perhaps even DDT. All of these historical pesticides were effective, but they were also toxic to both the applicators and the environment. Fortunately, today’s agrochemical manufacturers produce pesticides that are effective while […]