Sprayers101 Archive
Search our archive of expert-written, data-driven analysis of spraying techniques, equipment, strategies, and more.
Drone-based perimeter-spraying for Colorado potato beetle
Colorado potato beetle (or CPB) is one of the most destructive insect pests in potato production. Heavy infestations of CPB can defoliate potato fields…
Spray Window – Can you plan a spray week?
Plan the day. Weigh the risks. Finish the job. Spray Window is a strategy game about spray planning. You have one sprayer and six…
What is Spray Quality, Part 4 – An Important Change in S572.3 and ISO25358
A new version of standard ASABE S572.3 (adopted 2020) and its international equivalent, ISO 25358 (adopted 2018) addresses a limitation of the previous standards.…
What is Spray Quality, Part 3 – The Evolution of Standards
When scientists with laser droplet sizing instruments compared their results with other labs using the same nozzles, the numbers didn’t agree exactly. Laser equipment…
Canadian Spray Drone Label Search
On June 10, 2026 the Pesticides Regulatory Directorate (PRD, formerly PMRA) permitted the use of drones for pesticides registered to be applied by air…
Florescent Dyes for Spray Coverage Evaluation Part 2
In 2025 I ran a comparison between five florescent dyes and three UV lamps to determine which combination worked best for tracing spray deposition.…
What is Spray Quality, Part 2 – Describing Sprays
Hydraulic atomizers comprise the majority of agricultural nozzles. They work by forcing a liquid through an orifice, resulting in a liquid sheet that is…
What is Spray Quality, Part 1 – Measuring Droplet Size
It’s often been said that droplet size is the most important factor governing spray operation success. Both spray drift and pesticide efficacy depend to…
How to Calibrate a Drone – Swath Width Calculation
Calibration is a fundamental step in any spray application. To apply the correct product rate, we need to know how much liquid per unit…
Sprayer Productivity for Smaller Scales
Travel is an amazing teacher. It exposes assumptions and replaces them with real life experiences. On a recent trip to New Zealand, I learned…
Product Failure or Sprayer Contamination? A Case Study
It’s unfortunate, but every year we encounter a few instances of mysterious crop injury following an application. Was it a product formulation issue? Was…
We Need Better Drift Control Technologies
Sprayer manufacturers have all but offloaded the entire responsibility for drift management to the sprayer nozzle. It’s asking too much. Sprayers have changed a…
Increase Sprayer Productivity Without Driving Faster
Timing trumps most things in crop protection. A great spray applied at the wrong time isn’t nearly as valuable as a mediocre spray at…
Assessing wheat head coverage from Defy 3D and 3D Ninety nozzles
We’ve been here before, haven’t we? I could rehash the explanation of why wheat head coverage is important, and define the variables involved, but…
Comparing Water Sensitive Paper Brands
Introduction Spray coverage describes the degree of contact between spray droplets and the target surface area. This metric can be used to predict the…
Wind and Flight Speed Shape Drone Spray Coverage: Lessons from 3D Deposition Mapping in Wheat
In this study, 3D sampling of drone spray applications in wheat demonstrates that coverage is strongly influenced by the interaction between drone downwash, flight…
Airblast Nozzles – Distributing Flow
There’s a certain deer-in-headlights expression that creeps onto a sprayer operator’s face when we discuss nozzle selection. We sympathize with our field sprayer clients given…
How Higher Speeds Affect Drone Swath Width
Speed Study Swath width is a fundamental parameter in spray drone mission planning. It facilitates the uniform application of broadacre pesticides at the target…
A Drone’s Swath Width Tapers During Acceleration and Deceleration
It can be challenging to illustrate how a drone deposits spray. We can take a cross-section of spray deposit (that is, the swath) using…
Establishing an Optimal Airblast Carrier Volume
North American product labels may or may not include carrier volume recommendations. When they do, it could be based on a two-dimensional value like…
How to Properly Set Up a Crop Sprayer
Article reprinted with kind permission from an original article written by Oliver Hill in the February, 2017 edition of Farmers Weekly. Photos ©Kathy Horniblow. Crop spraying…
Operator Safety: How to Avoid Pesticide Hazards
A Veteran Applicator’s Questions about Pesticide Handling Time and again, after years of working with dozens of different chemicals, I would wonder to myself…
Sprayer Loading and the Jar Test
The time and attention spent during sprayer loading is a worthy investment. It ensures that the products in the tank perform as intended and…
Cleaning Your Sprayer
We all know the importance of cleaning out a sprayer. It protects a sensitive crop. It protects people working with the sprayer. It protects…
Angled Spray Nozzles in Wheat
When T3 wheat rears its head, the first rainy day brings questions about spray angles. Let’s begin with a graphic that illustrates how angled…