There’s certainly a lot of Blackberry around this season! And I have been quiet busy spraying them. The main difficulty has been weather, and mother nature has kept me on my toes.
Gusty wind and torrential rain is not ideal for most spraying operations including Aerial application, which has caused a bit of a backlog for many spray contractors.
Blackberry has become a bit of a staple for me, around the central west and treatment with my trusty DJI T40 has yielded some pretty good results.
By mostly using Grazon Extra (or similar equivalents) plus Metsulfuron Methyl and a good quality wetter, the Blackberry starts to curl over in a matter of days.
Flight Planning via mapping is quiet often too awkward! This is because the Blackberry bushes are in tricky spots.
Under or Between trees is a recipe for disaster because unless your clearances are micky mouse! a collision with a tree is quiet possible.
If the job is pretty small (under 10 ha) it’s probably not feasible to map, so the “Manual Plus” mode on my T40 is definately a great option.
Utilizing the DJI T40’s FPV System in combination with Manual Plus mode has proven to be a very powerful option when treating scattered Blackberry!
Where “Manual plus” can be a huge advantage out in the open, can be just as dangerous around trees. It’s key features are the Semi auto functions, where it will maintain a set height and rotate 180 degrees whilst moving over to start the next run.
These amazing features can prove problematic when trying to spray blackberries under low hanging branches and getting close to a tree trunk.
When getting close to trees, “Fully manual” mode is the safer option and it is very delicate work!
Treating Blackberry is definately one of the more difficult things you can do with a spray drone, and it would be great to do it fully automated! but it sure beats doing it the old way.
