Drone Spraying for Onions in California

Onion applications center on foliar nutrition through bulbing, fungicides for botrytis and downy mildew, and insecticide for thrips. The canopy is narrow and dense, so coverage must reach into the bed, and the thrips window can move fast in warm weather.

Drone application flies a low, even pass over the closed canopy, applying a controlled volume per acre across the bed — and it flies when the ground is too soft for a rig after irrigation.

Onion beds are narrow, dense, and low; a drone's even, low pass covers the whole bed with the same volume, so no part of the field is under- or over-dosed.

Onion ground is often irrigated and soft, so a drone flies when a rig would rut or compact the bed — protecting the shallow root zone.

Virelo flies onion fields across the San Joaquin Valley, where the narrow, dense canopy and fast-moving thrips pressure demand precise timing. Our pilots coordinate with your PCA to time botrytis and downy mildew fungicides to the disease window and thrips insecticides to the pest buildup, with GPS-guided flights that apply a controlled volume per acre across the bed.

On irrigated onion ground, a drone flies when the soil is too soft for any rig, which is often right after irrigation when a thrips pass is most needed. The even, low pass covers the whole bed with the same volume, so no part of the field is under-dosed, and the low flight height keeps product on the target, protecting quality and reducing input cost on a high-value crop.