Tag: dew

  • 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.

  • Is it OK to Spray in the Early Morning? – Tips with Tom #2

    Is it OK to Spray in the Early Morning? – Tips with Tom #2

    It’s early morning on a bright, clear day. The sun is just starting to climb. There’s a heavy dew on the crop. Should you still head out to spray? Well, the dew is one thing, but there’s a much larger factor at play here that should factor in your decision. Whether or not you should spray with a heavy dew on the plant is this week’s Question of the Day, and then it’s time to head into the meat of this — inversions.

    The concept of an atmospheric inversion isn’t the most simple thing to wrap your head around, but in this episode of Spray Tips, Tom Wolf explains it, draws it and describes how to manage for it. What more could you ask for? Well, for one, you could start asking the weather forecasters to include more information in the morning run-down to help you identify an inversion… but that’s a discussion for another day.