Sprayers101 Archive
Search our archive of expert-written, data-driven analysis of spraying techniques, equipment, strategies, and more.
Spraying in Vegetable Greenhouses
Back in 2011 we toured a few vegetable greenhouses in Southern Ontario. I wanted to learn more about how greenhouses used hydraulic sprayers (i.e.…
Sprayer Top Tips – The Twitterverse has Spoken
In June, 2016 (back when Twitter was fun), someone tweeted a clever tip for sprayer operators. It got the usual round of likes and…
Disease Control in Berry Crops
In the spring of 2016, the Ontario Berry Growers Association (OBGA) conducted a survey of its membership to poll how fungicides were being applied. The results…
Fungicide Application in Cereal, Pulse, and Oilseed Crops
Get ready for a busy fungicide season. If your growing conditions have been good, your crop is dense and vigorous, and soil moisture is…
Pallet of Roundup – Parody
Pallet of Roundup Sung to the tune of “Stairway to Heaven”, by Spirit…..er, Led Zeppelin There’s a farmer who’s sure all canola…
The Pressure Gauge Shows More Than Pressure
Kim Blagborne (formally with Slimline Manufacturing) has long said that the pressure gauge on an airblast sprayer indicates more than just pressure. It can…
The Case for Low-Drift Sprays
This article was written by Tom Wolf for “PEI Potato News Magazine”, a publication of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board (http://peipotato.org/). It is…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.6): Sprayer Cleanout
It’s been quite a ride. Here’s episode six of “Exploding Spray Myths”. Real Agriculture helps us share an important message about why sprayer clean…
Boomless Nozzle Performance
NOTE: This article has proved very popular, and subsequently we received emails with additional information. The article has now been expanded to include work performed…
Strategies to Spray the Top of a Perennial Canopy
Orchardists, nurserymen and hop growers share something in common – they want to get spray to the top of a tall plant canopy with…
Flag the Technology – Matching Herbicide to Genetics
We like to keep things simple ’round here and this poka-yoke from Arkansas is both simple and effective. What’s a poka-yoke? “Poka-Yoke”: a Japanese term…
Hol Spraying Systems – Canadian airblast gets an upgrade
The first modern airblast sprayer was developed in the mid 1900’s, but competed with existing equipment before it was adopted by the majority. As…
Sprayer Nurse Truck Designs Part 2
One of our recent posts highlighted some great producer designed tender systems for the sprayer. We posted four submissions, and are continuing the series…
Continuous Rinsing
We’ve recently been talking about how to save time while cleaning a sprayer. Although it’s very important to be thorough while cleaning, and to…
Sprayer Nurse Truck Designs
We’ve recently been talking about how we can increase sprayer productivity by decreasing downtime. The main productivity robbers are time spent filling and cleaning. Using…
#SprayerHaiku
On the morning of February 27, 2016 (a Saturday) a Twitter conversation sprung up that deserved to be captured in an article. Tom was…
Top Sprayer Retrofits
You’ve got an older sprayer. Your neighbours have newer sprayers. For various reasons, you’ve decided against a trade. How can you still get the…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.5): Early Morning Spraying
Should you really get up before the birds to spray? There are a lot of good reasons for early morning and night spraying, but if…
Lessons Learned from the Top 5 Field Sprayer Articles of 2015
When Jason and I launched the Sprayers101 website in June, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Seven short months and 150 posts later, we’re…
My Sprayer Santa Wish List
Dear Sprayer Santa, “I tried to be good this year. It was hard, though. Yes, I know that fast driving causes drift and lots…
What’s my Spray Quality, in 3 Simple Steps
The introduction of dicamba and 2,4-D tolerance traits in corn and soybeans was accompanied by an unprecedented emphasis on spray drift management by the…
Agrifac Condor: A Wake-up Call For North American Sprayer Manufacturers?
I like good ideas. And at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock this fall, I saw a sprayer that puts a lot of them…
When is Fungicide Coverage Critical? Always!
Introduction A local strawberry producer was just beginning his harvest when the entire field was suddenly stricken with anthracnose. He would have done almost…
Hydraulic Fittings: A Galling Metallurgical State of Affairs
So it’s been a long spraying season and as you perform your annual maintenance you grudgingly admit that the hoses have given their all.…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.3): Nozzle Pressure
Here’s the third in our series of short, educational and irreverent videos made with Real Agriculture.We wanted to explain where pressure readings are taken…