Sprayers101 Archive
Search our archive of expert-written, data-driven analysis of spraying techniques, equipment, strategies, and more.
The Return of the Trade Show
No matter where you live, it’s been a long time since the last “normal” ag trade show. The pandemic forced a break in this…
Sensor-Controlled Sprayers for Specialty Crop Production
Many of the application technologies used in specialty crop production today are based on axial fan airblast sprayers (Figure 1). Airblast sprayers were first…
Evaluating Methods for Controlling Algae in Carrier Water Storage Tanks
This work was performed with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFA Field Crop Weed Specialist. In the early summer months, many field and specialty crop operations collect…
How to Spray Ginseng
This article was co-written with Dr. Sean Westerveld, Ontario Ginseng and Herb Specialist. An effective ginseng protection program begins with observing the Integrated Pest…
Adjusting Sprayer for Alternate Rows
An “Alternate Row Middle (ARM)” traffic pattern is where the sprayer passes down every second row. The intent is to improve work rate by…
Clean Your Nozzles
When operators winterize their sprayers, they should remove all the tips and store them separately. Many store them in large pails with lids. Calibrating…
Spray Drift Basics
This article is intended as a basic overview of what pesticide spray drift is and how to avoid it. If you want a more…
Optics on Airblast Sprayers – What They Can’t See
“Precision agriculture” is many things to many people. In the context of spraying, let’s define it as “detecting and responding to variability”. One example…
Pro Tips for Pre-Harvest and Desiccation Sprays
A version of this article was originally written by @nozzle_guy as a guest blog for Farm At Hand, and is reproduced with permission. One…
Spraying Weather
It’s time to spray and what’s the first thing you do? Check the weather forecast, of course. More often than not, the suitability of…
Spray Coverage in Field Tomato
Spraying field tomato is difficult – period. In Ontario, early variety tomato canopies get very dense in July. The inner canopy is relatively still, humid, cool and…
How Cameras, Computers and Cake Recipes will Drive the Future of Weed Recognition
The idea of controlling weeds individually instead of treating the whole field uniformly makes a lot of sense. Why waste herbicides, till soil unnecessarily…
Methods for Testing Nozzle Flow Rate
Calibration should be a regular practice for every operation that uses a sprayer. Part of that process is confirming that each nozzle is operating…
The Art and Beauty of Spraying – A Photo Essay
This is an indulgent article. Over the years I’ve amassed thousands of sprayer-related photos. I find some to be compelling and even beautiful. It…
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…
Herbicides in Asparagus – A creative solution
In 2016, an asparagus grower in southern Ontario picked up a used De Cloet Hi-Boy originally used to spray tobacco. His vision was to…
Installing a Continuous Rinse System
Cleaning, flushing, triple-rinsing… whatever you call it, sprayer sanitation is a time-consuming and distasteful task. Methods vary, but they generally span from the classic…
Gear up – Throttle down
In 1977, David Shelton and Kenneth Von Bargen (University of Nebraska) published an article called “10-1977 CC279 Gear Up – Throttle Down”. It described…
Drop Hoses Improve Coverage in Field Peppers
In early July 2016, a farm supplier contacted us on behalf of a client with a history of disease control issues in his field pepper…
Stop and Spray the Roses – More Efficiently!
Nursery growers apply pesticides to a diverse range of plant species. In a perfect world, sprayer operators would adjust their sprayer set-up to match each…
If I had a Low Drift Nozzle – Parody
Sung to the tune of “If I had a Rocket Launcher” by Bruce Cockburn Here comes the John Deere sprayer — second time today;…
Direct Chemical Injection Systems – A Primer
No sprayer operator is more preoccupied with work rates, sprayer cleanout and tank mixes than the custom (aka contract) applicator. Perhaps this is why…
Calibration – “The Fundamental Relationship”
The Fundamental Relationship, a concept by Professor D. Ken Giles (Emeritus), UC Davis Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, is a way of talking about…
Airblast Nozzles – The Nozzling Process
Establishing an airblast nozzling solution is an involved process. We must first define the working parameters and flush out any special circumstances. Then we…
The Label Summary Sheet Proposal
We’ve identified and discussed shortcomings in the content and design of today’s pesticide labels in an earlier article. From the perspective of the spray applicator,…