Category: Tips with Tom

A home for Tom’s “Spray Tips with Tom” series

  • What’s with dew? – Tips with Tom #9

    What’s with dew? – Tips with Tom #9

    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 morning spray applications.

    The question is often: will the spray run off the plant or will it get so diluted that it doesn’t work anymore?

    In a dew chamber, work has shown that large spray droplets are more likely to run off a plant saturated with dew than their smaller counterparts. However, similar work showed that spray efficacy was not altered by droplet size.

    Wolf discusses this work and the potential answer to the seemingly conflicting findings. Wolf also explains how grassy weeds compare to broadleaves, the role of surfactants, and what to consider when making the decision to spray through dew or not.

  • The 2015 in Review: 8 Points Evaluation of Your Spray Program – Tips with Tom #12

    The 2015 in Review: 8 Points Evaluation of Your Spray Program – Tips with Tom #12

    During post-harvest down-time, it’s important to take a much needed breather.
    Then, before you know it’ll be time to start the shop projects and equipment maintenance for next year, if you haven’t started already. Before you get started, though, Tom Wolf has a handy list of things to evaluate, clean up, fix or replace on the sprayer.

    In this final installment of Tips with Tom, Wolf runs through key areas of the sprayer that could potentially use upgrading or just maintenance, plus lists some quality parameters that could be improved for next year that may take some footwork through the busy winter season.

  • The Pros & Cons of Aerial Application – Tips with Tom #10

    The Pros & Cons of Aerial Application – Tips with Tom #10

    Hiring an aerial applicator means fewer tracks in the crop and often a quicker spray application, but spray planes are not miraculous, says Tom Wolf. In fact, they deal with a lot of the same challenges as their well-grounded counterparts.

    In this last installment of his 10 part series, Tom answers some of the most common questions around aerial applications, including:

    • “Does the aircraft wing generate a downforce that forces spray droplets into the canopy?”
    • “Is it thus that aerial spray applicators can apply such low water volumes?”
    • “Is it worth paying extra for a custom application from above?”

    In addressing these questions, Tom corrects a few agricultural myths, provides tips for determining which method is better for your operation and emphasizes the importance of communication.

  • Measuring Spray Coverage – Tips with Tom #8

    Measuring Spray Coverage – Tips with Tom #8

    The importance of good spray coverage is emphasized in all kinds of agricultural publications, including product labels. But, according to Tom Wolf, “the labels are remarkably silent on what good coverage actually is and how you can actually measure it.”

    Tom goes on to explain that spray coverage can be defined using three main criteria: droplet density, area covered and dose administered. In order to measure and assess spray coverage, we recommend using water sensitive paper, a rigid, specially-coated, yellow paper which is stained dark blue/purple by aqueous solutions. The paper can be positioned at the targeted levels of the crop canopy with a paper clip or other handy instrument and the coverage received in the field then compared to recommended levels produced in the lab to give an indication of whether or not coverage needs to be adjusted through increasing water volumes or altering droplet size.

    Learn to integrate spray coverage evaluation into your spray operation, and how doing so can help you fine-tune applications.

  • Spray Quality – Tips with Tom #7

    Spray Quality – Tips with Tom #7

    One of the greatest threats to lost return and non-target plant damage in spraying is drift. Spray applicators have to be conscious of all kinds of factors that affect the risk of drift, including wind speed, boom height, potential inversions and, of course, spray quality.

    Tom Wolf zeroes in on spray quality, explaining what it means and how a given nozzle is categorized. Wolf also suggests which categories of quality (from Very Fine to Ultra Coarse) should rarely be considered in agricultural applications, and where spray applicators can find information to aid in one aspect of the crucial decision making process surrounding spraying.