Pesticide Drift and Communication

Staged photo of a Yasi spraying water. Source unknown.

When it comes to information about mitigating pesticide drift, it’s plentiful and easily accessed. I have an archive of >30 articles written by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture staff spanning 1999 to present day. Many are on this website. In fact, there’s so much good information out there (see BeDriftAware) it feels like there’s nothing left […]

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What’s with dew? – Tips with Tom #9

Tips with Tom - Title

When warm air is cooled, it loses some of its moisture-holding capabilities. This change often occurs at night, when plants (and other objects) cool. Once the temperature of the surface of the leaves, for example, drops below the dewpoint, it causes water to condense, forming the shiny dew that causes so many to question early […]

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Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.10): Airblast Coverage

Here in Episode 10 of Exploding Sprayer Myths we’ve coaxed @Nozzle_Guy back into the orchard. This is part two of a two-part mini series on airblast calibration. In Episode 9 we talked about air settings and travel speed, and now we’re tackling nozzling and coverage. But here’s the twist: Rather than use spray math to […]

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New Use for Bourgault 1460 Field Sprayer (#SprayMar)

This week I spoke with Gerry Bell, a producer from near Gravelbourg in southern Saskatchewan (a beautiful town with a historic downtown, church and school, also, home of the Gravelbourger at the local diner). He told me about a project he recently completed, converting his older pull-type sprayer to a granular spreader. It’s a great […]

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How to Calibrate an Airblast Sprayer Operator

Speaking with Ontario apple growers in 2011

When an extension specialist, equipment retailer or consultant is asked to calibrate an airblast sprayer, they would be well advised to calibrate the sprayer operator as well. Consider this: you and the operator are each investing three hours (average) to optimize the sprayer for a specific set of circumstances: the crop dimensions, density, and the […]

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