Why Rinse? Airblast sprayers are not rinsed as frequently or as diligently as field sprayers. This is primarily because they are not used to spray herbicides, so residue carry-over doesn’t incur an immediately obvious penalty. The typical operator rinses prior to long-term storage or when cross contamination might cause some form of antagonism (e.g. dormant […]
One of the pleasures of working in agricultural extension is when you’re able to help a grower solve a problem. This was one of those happy occasions. An orchardist purchased a Lipco multi-row recycling sprayer and wanted help evaluating their spray coverage. We worked in 3.7 m (12 foot), mature, high-density Royal Gala trees. The […]
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 […]
Read More… from How to Calibrate an Airblast Sprayer Operator
Some pesticide labels require or prohibit certain droplet sizes to reduce the potential for drift. But, even when labels are silent about size restrictions, operators should be aware of the potential for droplet size to affect coverage. In the case of airblast, droplets should be: Once spray leaves the nozzle, the operator has no more […]
Read More… from How Airblast Spray Droplets Behave (or Misbehave)
This research was performed with Dennis Van Dyk, OMAFRA Vegetable Crop Specialist. In 2018, MS Gregson introduced a line of electrostatic sprayers (the Ecostatik) in Canada. While electrostatic technology has been used in agriculture since the 1980’s, this is the first time ground rigs have been so readily available to Ontario (possibly Canadian) growers. The 3-point hitch […]