Sprayers101 Archive
Search our archive of expert-written, data-driven analysis of spraying techniques, equipment, strategies, and more.
How to Size a Nozzle for Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
PWM is gaining popularity, and there is an ever-increasing number of first-time users that need to make nozzle selections for their system. We’ve written…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.13): Reading Nozzles and Nozzle Tables
After a long hiatus, it’s lucky episode 13! In this installment, Dr. Tom Wolf, intrepid reporter, braves the unforgiving wilds of Saskatoon as he…
Dealing with Pesticide Shortages in 2022
We’ve had dire warnings about possible pesticide shortages and price hikes for 2022. Price hikes are one thing. But if the products we need…
What’s the Cost of Poor Deposit Uniformity?
We’ve heard it often: calibrate your nozzles to be sure your boom output is uniform across its entire width. The downside of poor uniformity…
Pressure Changes Spray Angles
When we consult a nozzle catalogue we are interested in the flow and droplet sizes produced at a given pressure. Perhaps we should also…
Pesticide Redistribution: An Important Aspect of Synthetic Pesticides
If you’re a sprayer operator with some experience behind you, you may have applied mercury arsenate, nicotine, Paris green, or perhaps even DDT. All…
Spray Patterns for Spot Sprays
Spot spraying promises to dramatically cut herbicide use. Data from Green-on-Brown (GoB) sprays suggest at least 50% and possibly 90% savings are possible, depending…
Coverage is King
We’ve often heard the adage “Coverage is King” but what does that mean, exactly? It means that in order for your spray application to…
Broadcast Boom Nozzle Spacing
North American built boom sprayers have nozzle spacings of 20” (50 cm in the rest of the world), but other spacings such as 15”…
Rate Controllers and a Pulse Width Modulation Update
There’s been a lot of talk about rate control in spraying, and one key technology is pulse-width modulated spray systems (PWM). Although PWM has…
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas – Parody
Here’s our rendition of the Christmas classic: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas… but with a bit of a sprayer-winterizing twist. You can hear us…
Adventures in Lecturing – Turn Off PowerPoint
Harvest is mostly done and growers want to hear what we’ve learned and what’s coming next. Lecture season is upon us once again. In…
Air-Assisted Spraying in Greenhouse Ornamentals
The aesthetic value of ornamental plants requires a near-zero tolerance for insect pests, which cause up to 10% of crop losses per season. Controlling…
Centrifugal and Diaphragm Pumps
Adjusting Sprayer Settings Operators are encouraged to adjust airblast sprayer settings to conform to the variability in canopy size, density, spacing, and weather conditions.…
Testing and Correcting Airblast Pressure
The role of pressure is often underappreciated in spraying. Many airblast operators (still) don’t use rate controllers, so the only way to monitor sprayer…
Horsch Leeb sprayer gives people what they want with 6.300 VL model
Theodor Leeb started building self-propelled sprayers in Bavaria, Germany in 2001 and formed a partnership with Horsch LLC in 2011 (Horsch has been selling…
The Ideal Sprayer (an open letter to sprayer manufacturers)
Today’s sprayer has to excel at a lot of things. It has to have capacity and low weight. It has to go fast but…
End of Spraying Season Checklist
It’s finally that time of year to put away the most-used piece of farm equipment, the sprayer. Winterizing is a necessary step, but also…
Spray and Soil Fumigant Buffer Zones in Canada
Spray buffer zones are no-spray areas required at the time of application between the area being treated and the closest downwind edge of a…
Three Manageable Factors that Affect Spray Drift
In 2014 one of our OMAFRA summer students designed a short-and-gritty demonstration using a backpack sprayer, a variable-speed fan and some water-sensitive paper positioned…
Controlling Cercospora Leaf Spot in Sugarbeets
Download the 2023 publication from Crop Protection here. Cercospora leaf spot (CLS), caused by the fungal pathogen Cercospora beticola, is one of the most…
How Canadian Crop Protection Products are Assessed for Safety
As originally published by The Grower, August 2020. Pests such as insects, diseases, and weeds can affect our quality of life in many different…
Spraying Ginseng with Arag Microjets
In June 2013 we ran a ginseng spraying workshop and we learned as much as the growers did. Ginseng is notoriously difficult to spray:…
Does the Pull-Type Sprayer once again have a Place on our Farms?
The self-propelled sprayer revolution is complete in western Canada. Almost all sales of new equipment are self-propelled. In fact, the once thriving sector of…
How Much Horsepower do I Need?
How much horsepower (HP) do you need (really) when pairing a tractor and a towed sprayer or any other PTO powered implement? This important…