Tag: myth

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.11): Drift

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.11): Drift

    This video won the Gold 2019 Canadian Farm Writers Federation’s Jack McPherson Award for Electronic Media. This award is for the best video, news story or feature broadcast by a Canadian medium less than 15 minutes in length on an agricultural topic. We’d like to thank Jason Strove, Bern Tobin and the whole team at RealAgriculture for helping to bring Exploding Sprayer Myths to life.

    Welcome to season four of Exploding Sprayer Myths, featuring a new opening sequence and a special guest star. Have fun accidentally learning about reducing pesticide drift as we poke fun at Canadian and Australian stereotypes. If you’re unfamiliar with the McKenzie Brothers and the Great-White North, then be sure to educate yourself here before you take off, eh?

    Beauty.

    Thanks to Mary O’Brien (@SprayDriftGirl) and the Simcoe Research Station.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.10): Airblast Coverage

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.10): Airblast Coverage

    Here in Episode 10 of Exploding Sprayer Myths we’ve coaxed @Nozzle_Guy back into the orchard. This is part two of a two-part mini series on airblast calibration. In Episode 9 we talked about air settings and travel speed, and now we’re tackling nozzling and coverage.

    But here’s the twist: Rather than use spray math to determine the required nozzles to achieve ideal coverage, we do it backwards. This process uses ideal coverage to determine nozzles and finishes with sprayer math.

    Confused? Watch the video and this surprisingly simple and versatile approach will become clear. See if you catch the subtle visual joke about “coverage” realize that to pull this off, we had to film it backwards.

    Special thanks to the @RealAgriculture team, the Simcoe Research Station and Don Murdoch.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.9): Airblast Air

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.9): Airblast Air

    In this, the season three finale of Exploding Sprayer Myths, we join Jason and the Tom-inator as they “tackle” airblast air settings. There are a whole suite of articles dedicated to this topic, linked below the video. It is, arguably, the most important adjustment you can make to an airblast sprayer.

    Will there be more Exploding Spray Myths episodes? In the words of a great man: “We’ll be back.”

    Special thanks to Don Murdoch and the Simcoe Research Station.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.8): Volume

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.8): Volume

    In this episode of Exploding Sprayer Myths, we lay out four steps to determining the most appropriate spray volume required to achieve good coverage.

    1. Understand how the product works
    2. Understand the target
    3. Understand droplet behaviour
    4. Understand the plant canopy

    Joined by show-stealing Dr. Doug Baumann, and with the help of a lot of caffeine, we learn that there’s no silver bullet to choosing a spray volume.

    Special thanks to Syngenta, Honeywood, and to Real Agriculture.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.7): Boom Height

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.7): Boom Height

    It’s a new season of Exploding Sprayer Myths so we’ve got a new opening sequence!

    In this episode we demonstrate the importance of nozzle spacing, spray angle and boom height. We also turn a hapless pineapple into a projectile and spray dyed antifreeze on a cold winter day.

    Learn more about how boom height affects spray deposit uniformity, and why that should concern you, by going here.

    This episode was filmed on location at the Syngenta Honeywood Research Facility in Plattsville, Ontario. We thank them for generously allowing us to commandeer their facility and staff for the day.

    And of course, none of this would be possible without the talented staff at Real Agriculture. Make sure you tune into RealAg radio.

    A little extra fun:

    We received this email after a grower heard Tom speak at a meeting. A compelling observation about how nozzle spacing and drift affects men everywhere:

    Tom: I really enjoyed your talk in Humboldt yesterday. During the coffee break immediately after, I went to the washroom and noticed 3 guys spread evenly across 5 urinals. Wow. Talk about worrying about spray drift. When I returned to my table and told my wife of my findings, she commented that it must have something to do about the distance to the target, as it couldn’t possibly be that the pressure was too high!