Welcome to Sprayers 101
Sprayers 101 is a non-profit resource describing best practices in safe, efficient and effective agricultural spraying. The site is based in Canada with content freely contributed by international authors. Browse our library of articles, videos, presentations, apps, calculators, tables and ePubs. Happy Spraying!
Our most recent articles:
Evaluating the return on investment of optical sprayers for horticulture
Introduction Investing in an optical sprayer for horticulture is not a straightforward financial decision. Compared with a conventional boom sprayer, the upfront capital cost is substantially higher, often by an order of magnitude, and most commercial systems require an annual software or service subscription to operate. Despite these barriers, adoption is accelerating, and many growers…
Crop-Adapted Spraying in Highbush Blueberry: Nine years of pesticide savings
This case study is taking place on a 15 acre highbush blueberry operation in southern Ontario. In 2016, considerable pressure from spotted-wing drosophila (SWD) prompted the growers to make changes to their crop management practices and their spray program. They employed a three-pronged approach to improving crop protection: We have been tracking pesticide use, water…
Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.15): Where will it land?
Celebrating 10 years of “thinking we’re funny”, Exploding Sprayer Myths is back with a new opening sequence! Join cheesy game show host Wink Boomwobbly and his unsuspecting contestant Joe Mama as they discuss the factors that influence spray droplet fate. How do wind, travel speed, boom height and droplet size affect your pesticide application? Knowing…
Past articles you might like:
Avoiding Skips from PWM Sprayers
Does this sound familiar? “This year was the first year we used a growth regulator on our wheat. After heading, we noticed a wavy pattern of different plant heights between 30 and 45° to the operating direction. It was only a couple inches difference and was difficult to photograph. We sprayed 12 gpa at 9…
Recirculating Boom Options
If you read this site, you know we’re fans of recirculating booms. We love them for three reasons: If you’re new to the concept of recirculating booms, read more here. Until recently, these booms were only available on sprayers imported from outside North America (Horsch, Amazone, Agrifac to mention three), or via France’s Pommier booms…
Installing a Continuous Rinse System
Cleaning, flushing, triple-rinsing… whatever you call it, sprayer sanitation is a time-consuming and distasteful task. Methods vary, but they generally span from the classic triple rinse (30-45 minutes) to a full tear-down and decontamination (many hours and likely an overnight soak). The operator decides how much time and effort to invest depending on the chemistry they’ve…