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 […]
Read More… from Herbicides in Asparagus – A homegrown solution
Air-assisted boom sprayers have been around since the 80s (likely longer). Common in Europe, they have demonstrated value in mitigating drift and improving canopy penetration. In North America, they are used by a few vegetable and berry growers, but are exceedingly rare among field croppers. There are a few possible reasons for this. Air-assist is […]
Sung to the tune of “If I had a Rocket Launcher” by Bruce Cockburn Here comes the John Deere sprayer — second time today; All the insects scatter and hope it goes away; How many larvae murdered only Dow can say; If I had a low drift nozzle… I’d make somebody spray. I don’t believe […]
In 2014 one of our OMAFRA summer students designed a short-and-gritty demonstration using a backpack sprayer, a variable-speed fan and some water-sensitive paper positioned downwind at 1.5 metre intervals. The intent was to illustrate how sprayer operators could reduce the potential for off-target drift by recognizing and accounting for three factors: Apparent wind speed (i.e. […]
Read More… from Three manageable factors that affect spray drift
Authors: T M Wolf, B C Caldwell and J L Pederson. Originally published in Aspects of Applied Biology 71, 2004, in expanded form. Abstract Spray drift deposition into water bodies may pose environmental and health hazards, and buffer zones have been suggested as a means of mitigating water contamination. Field trials were conducted to determine […]
Read More… from Riparian vegetation or low-drift nozzles for water protection?