Reducing Selection Pressure for Herbicide Resistance

Herbicide resistance has been called the number one threat to conventional herbicide-based weed management strategies. Since the 1970s, the number of cases of herbicide resistant weeds has shown a linear increase both globally (currently at about 500 documented unique weed species x mode of action cases) and within Canada (at about 70 such cases), according […]

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Thermal Inversions for Sprayer Operators

The Earth’s Atmosphere. The illustration of the Earth is to scale, but the landscape is not. Our focus in on the Surface Boundary Layer.

In April 2014, NDSU extension published an excellent factsheet explaining what thermal inversions are, how to detect them and how they affect pesticide spray drift. That factsheet inspired this article. The Atmosphere The Earth is surrounded by a layer of air called the atmosphere. Think of it as a sheet of liquid percolating and flowing […]

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The pressure/spray/coverage relationship

Pressure is integral to nozzle performance. Reducing hydraulic pressure reduces nozzle flow rate, increases median droplet size, and typically reduces spray fan angle. Increasing pressure increases nozzle flow rate, reduces median droplet size and typically increases spray fan angle. You can watch this Exploding Sprayer Myths video to learn how pressure, boom height and nozzle spacing […]

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Loading a Sprayer? Add Time and Patience!

What’s the most underused active ingredient when creating a proper tank mixture in a sprayer? Patience. Spray season is never long enough. The days which are most conducive to spraying are hard to come by. Therefore, the ingredient we need the most when spraying as well as tankmixing is patience. Without it, we are setting ourselves up […]

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Sprayer loading and the jar test

Adding pouches to the basket. Photo Credit – M. Lanthier, British Columbia.

This article was co-written with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA Weed Management Specialist – Field Crops The time and attention spent during sprayer loading is a worthy investment. It ensures that the products in the tank perform as intended and reduces the chance of physical incompatibilities. The label Pesticide labels are always the first point of reference. […]

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