One of the more perplexing questions in tank cleanout is knowing when the cleaning process is good enough to prevent harm. This question is especially relevant to producers that grow canola and use Group 2 herbicide products, or grow soybeans and use dicamba on some of their area. In both of these examples, crops can be extremely sensitive to very small residues.
When does an applicator know that the cleaning job was good enough? In about two weeks! There is no easy way to tell, except to be precautionary.
A bit of math can help put us in the ballpark. First, we need to know the tolerance of a crop to the herbicide, preferably expressed as a proportion of the tank mix to be cleaned. Let’s use dicamba as an example. It’s been reported that non-dicamba tolerant soybeans can show leaf-cupping symptoms from dicamba at rates as low as 1/20,000 of the label rate.
Recall that sprayer cleanout is really two separate processes that we’ve written about here, here, and here. The first is dilution of the remaining volume in the system. The second is decontaminating specific sprayer components (filters, boom ends, hoses). We’ll focus on dilution in this article.
If you’re diluting, the second piece of information you need is how much liquid is left in the sprayer when you start cleaning. All sprayers have a certain amount of liquid left in the tank and associated plumbing after the tank is empty. The sump, the suction line feeding the pump, and the lines returning to the tank via agitation or sparge are most common. Even when the pump no longer draws liquid, those lines retain some volume of product. This volume can’t be pushed out to the boom, most of it goes back to the tank.
The volume of this “remaining liquid” is likely somewhere between three and thirty US gallons.
The remainder volume depends on the sprayer, and also how the tank is emptied. Some applicators simply spray until the solution pump pressure drops, others choose to drain the remaining liquid from a sump valve. When draining, product should be captured in pails rather than allowing it on the ground where it will harm the soil and possibly make its way into runoff.
It’s always preferable to spray the tank empty in a field.
As we’ll see below, a low remaining volume greatly improves the efficiency of the dilution process. It’s a sprayer feature that should be considered at purchase.
The table below has some sample calculations. Note that the paired cases (1&2, 3&4, 6&7) all use the same total water volume, but compare a single vs triple rinse of three different remaining volumes.
Comparing Case 1 to Case 3 or Case 6, (remaining volumes of 10, 20, and 50, respectively), it’s clear that minimizing the remaining volume is important.
It’s also striking that the same amount of clean water, subdivided into three smaller repeat batches (Case 2, 4 and 7), is much more powerful than using single batches with the same total clean water amounts.
Reducing the size of each batch even further and increasing the number of batches (Case 5) approaches what a properly executed continuous rinse can do.
Is it necessary to dilute to the level that’s safe for the next crop? Not always. The next product in the tank acts to dilute the remainder once again, possibly by a factor of 100, depending on the remaining volume and the tank size (Case 8). The material in the boom, however, won’t be diluted by this additional volume, and therefore may harm the crop unless it is first sprayed out elsewhere, especially when section ends are not drained and rinsed.
This is where a recirculating boom is valuable, providing an opportunity to charge the boom without spraying. The penalty is that the boom volume is then returned to the tank in the process, increasing the amount that needs to be diluted.
Let’s return to the dicamba example with a 20,000-fold dilution requirement and a 1,200 gallon tank. We’ll consider two examples. In the first, the operator wants to prime the boom in the soybean field without any harm to the dicamba-susceptible beans. A 20,000-fold dilution is needed.
We’ve looked at five options that each assume a remaining volume of 10 gallons. Note that our goal is the same – dilute by a factor of 20,000.
The formulae:
Dilution per Rinse = final dilution ^(1/# of rinses)
Rinse Volume = (dilution per rinse * remaining volume) – remaining volume
The maximum amount of dilution possible with a 1,200 gallon tank and a 10 gallon remainder is 120 (see Row 8, Table above).
- One rinse diluting by 20,000 – impossible with a 1,200 gallon tank (max achievable is 120-fold);
- Two sequential rinses each diluting by a factor of 20,000^(1/2) = 141. Also impossible with a 1,200 gallon tank;
- Three sequential rinses, each diluting by a factor of 20,000^(1/3) = 27. A volume of 260 gallons can do this (27*10)-10=260 gallons. For three rinses, the total volume is 780 gallons.
- Four sequential rinses, each diluting by a factor of 20,000^(1/4) = 12. A volume of 110 gallons can do this, for a total volume of 440 gallons;
- Five sequential rinses, each diluting by a factor of 20,000^(1/5) = 7. A volume of 60 gallons can do this, for a total volume of 300 gallons.
The first two examples don’t work because the tank isn’t big enough. But the three remaining examples all work equally well, they just consume different amounts of clean water.
If that doesn’t seem like a lot of work, then repeat this calculation with a 30 gallon remainder volume, common on many sprayers. Short on time? We did it for you here.
Second, let’s assume the operator is prepared to prime the boom where it doesn’t harm soybeans. Now the first new product tank takes care of the last dilution, lowering the cleanout dilution requirement by 1,200/10 = a factor of 120. Now the cleanout dilution requirement is only 20,000/120 = 166.
- One 1,200 gallon tank rinse can only achieve 120-fold dilution.
- Two rinses, each diluting by 166^(1/2) = 13. Rinse volumes of 120 gallons are sufficient, for a total of 240 gallons.
- Three sequential rinses, each diluting by a factor of 166^(1/3) = 6. A volume of 50 gallons can do this, for a total volume of 150 gallons.
The math is simple, and can be done using the formula in the first table, or this app: Tank Dilution
The hard part is knowing what the remaining volume is. It would be very useful for a manufacturer to provide this information.
In the meantime, you can estimate on your own. Add water with surfactant to your tank, and spray it empty. While spraying, turn the agitation on and off to fill and activate the sparge, if equipped. Once the tank is empty and the spray pressure drops, stop and drain the sump into pails. Ensure that the pump suction line and the pressure line up to and including the agitation and sparge lines also drain. Disconnect these if necessary. If there is a filter housing in this circuit, remove it as well. Avoid collecting liquid from the pressure line beyond where the the agitation or sparge split off, as this will be pushed out to the boom.
An alternative is to estimate the length of hose in this circuit, using the following table as a guide:
And remember, diluting the remaining liquid is only one part of a cleaning process.