Sprayers101 Archive
Search our archive of expert-written, data-driven analysis of spraying techniques, equipment, strategies, and more.
Sprayer Turn Compensation
Turn compensation is a feature in pulse width modulation (PWM) sprayers in which nozzle output matches the boom’s speed during a turn. When turning,…
ExactApply Primer
ExactApply is an application system capable of PWM, introduced by John Deere in August, 2017, with its first customer field season in 2018. ExactApply…
ExactApply Auto Mode Nozzle Selection (Excel File)
ExactApply Nozzles Auto Mode
TechTour Live Promo Video
In 2018 Tom and I were invited to participate TechTour Live, Real Agriculture’s live educational event spanning four Prairie cities in four days. How…
Nozzle Sizing and Calibration Charts
Need to find the right nozzle size for your application? Sometimes a simple chart is the easiest way to figure things out. Print it…
Diluting 20,000-Fold with a 30 Gallon Remaining Volume in a 1,200 Gallon Tank
(This short article is an addendum to this article) Our goal in this example is to dilute by a factor of 20,000. The maximum…
How Clean is Clean?
One of the more perplexing questions in tank cleanout is knowing when the cleaning process is good enough to prevent harm. This question is…
Testing the Effectiveness of Sprayer Rinsing Methods using Dicamba
This work was performed with Mike Cowbrough, Weed Management Specialist (Field Crops) with OMAFA. The unprecedented number of dicamba drift complaints in the United States…
Application Recordkeeping: Focus on Environmental Conditions
Note: This article was written by Bob Wolf of Wolf Consulting and Research, and first appeared as an NDSU Extension Service publication. Bob has…
Spray Coverage in Carrot, Onion and Potato
This research was performed with Dennis Van Dyk (@Dennis_VanDyk), vegetable specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Prior to 2017,…
The Agitation over Agitation
Sprayers101 recently received a couple of seemingly unrelated questions about airblast sprayers: What are the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical versus hydraulic agitation? Why…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.9): Airblast Air
In this, the season three finale of Exploding Sprayer Myths, we join Jason and the Tom-inator as they “tackle” airblast air settings. There are…
The Vermorel Nozzle – Humility in the Face of History
It’s a rainy Friday in 2017 and I decided to deal with the articles, factsheets, manuals and other sprayer-related documents that have been piling…
The Misplay of our Generation
We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. –Amara’s Law of…
Plumbing Projects That Make Spraying Easier and Safer
Some of our biggest struggles in spraying involve the start and end of each spray day. When starting a new field after the sprayer…
Question of the Week: Fine Sprays for Fungicides?
The following question arrived from one of our prairie clients last week: “A retailer is promoting the use of hollow cone nozzles to be…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.8): Volume
In this episode of Exploding Sprayer Myths, we lay out four steps to determining the most appropriate spray volume required to achieve good coverage.…
Deciding on the Right Way to Spray
“What is the right way to apply this pesticide?” It’s one of the classic questions. Applicators know that spray method determines the efficacy of…
Pulse Width Modulation For Newbies
I was recently asked to describe Pulse Width Modulation to a non-farming audience. My instinct was to send them back to what we’d already…
Storing Pesticide Mix Overnight
Not being able to finish a tank due to weather or any other reason happens to just about everyone. Is it OK to simply leave…
The Buzzword Conversation – Parody
Buzzwords: Addictive vocabulary with a shelf life.We love these terms, and they seem to make their way into our language virtually overnight. But perhaps it’s gone…
How Do Hydraulic Low-Drift Nozzles Work?
Low drift nozzles have become the standard way to apply pesticides from a boom sprayer. In order to use them properly, we need to…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.7): Boom Height
It’s a new season of Exploding Sprayer Myths so we’ve got a new opening sequence! In this episode we demonstrate the importance of nozzle…
Should Backpack Sprayers be Used to Test Airblast Products? – Part 2
In Part One of this article, we showed that approximately 40% of minor use label expansions and registrant submissions rely on data from hand…
