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 cutting the driving time in half. The operator hopes to provide suitable coverage on both the sprayer-facing half of the canopy, and that half of the canopy facing the next alley. […]

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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 a perfect environment for diseases such as late blight. It is challenging to deliver fungicides to the inner canopy and this can lead to inadequate disease control. Matters are slightly improved as the […]

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Herbicides in Asparagus – A homegrown 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 create a three-row herbicide sprayer for asparagus and we were invited to participate. His concept was to design shrouds that would contain the herbicide, but not snag the asparagus or drag […]

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Drop Hoses can Improve Coverage in Field Peppers

Spraying with drop-arms in mid-August.

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 operation. He wanted us to calibrate their sprayer and diagnose spray coverage to see if there was room for improvement. Improved coverage doesn’t necessarily mean improved efficacy, but generally it’s a […]

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Pressure Changes Spray Angles

Soybean demo plot sprayed with a contact herbicide using 110 degree air induction flat fans at 20 psi. The collapsed spray pattern did not overlap sufficiently to burn the entire crop down, leaving a striped pattern and demonstrating the poor coverage.

When we consult a nozzle catalogue we are interested in the flow and droplet sizes produced at a given pressure. Perhaps we should also consider the effect of pressure on spray angle. We have several articles discussing the collective impact of spray overlap, nozzle spacing and boom height on coverage uniformity (Check here and here […]

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