Tips for someone new to spraying???

locky76

Hey folks,

I'm after buying a jarmet 300litre sprayer to try & bring the docks & ragworth on the farm under control.
Has anyone any tips or advice for me as regards spraying?
The last time I did it was about three years ago with a loan of my uncle's sprayer...
Thanks in advance;)

vanderbadger

if you have an ibc try and leave it up high and have it filled with water, if possible park sprayer underneath it and use a short length of sewer pipe or similar to fill your sprayer, will be filled in a few mins. leave ibc filling again while you are out spraying, its just a quick way of refilling sprayer, you will cover alot more ground than if you are waiting to fill sprayer from hose all the time..
on the jarmet you hsould have 4 little leavers, one is for agitating so that doesnt need to be on all the time , when i started with jarmet i found it was hard to build up pressure and i was having to rev a good bit, i had the agitator lever left on all the time though so that was the issue

reilig

Keep the booms as close to the ground as possible to prevent drift.
Lap each run by about 1ft - there's nothing worse looking than unsprayed streaks
Don't use the PTO shaft on any other implement - I used ours on the hedgecutter after buying it and mangled it like a marshmallow twister
Always have a spare nozzle in the cab of the tractor.

bob charles

booms and nozzles have a serious attraction to mains fence wire

locky76

bob charles wrote: »

booms and nozzles have a serious attraction to mains fence wire

True, even more so if it's only a loan of a sprayer
Even more so again if the nozzles on the borrowed sprayer are no longfer available...

Dampintheattic

The chances of the day you are off / free to spray, being windy and wet, are in direct proportion, to the chances of the bread falling with the jam side down, on the wifes brand new carpet:D

Muckit

This is a tip I wish someone had told me! I always do it now everytime I pull sprayer out.

1. Fill your sprayer tank to the top with water only.
2. Stick on your cap (not your head, on the sprayer you gom), pull out your booms and run the sprayer at correct revs with tractor stationary.
3. Now hop down and check all the nozzles to make sure there is a good spray pattern from each and that there are no gaps or missed spots. You'I use up half a tank or so doing this.
4. NOW when you are happy, knock the booms, start agitating and add your weedkiller.
5. Top up with water.
6. Head for the field.;)

Also as said above, have a few spare nozzles and nozzle filters with you in the cab.

Try and use clean water supply and ensure filter from suction hose inside in tank is in order

Good luck!

milkprofit

good pair of Gloves
head protection a must

iverjohnston

Hi Muckit,
All good advice, to which I would add.

1) Fill with water only
2) go to a field/ Paddock that you know the exact size of, 3 acre etc ideal/
3) Spray it with clean water at the correct Revs, Pressure, Gear you intend to stick to for life.
4) How much water left? Any? Now you can adjust the gear so that 400 litres covers 3 acres or whatever.

5) Now put it back in the shed, because its too wet/windy/cold to spray!

Farmer Pudsey

Best time to spray is usually late evening as the wind often dies down. Fill sprayer and have the spuds watch a bit of telly and away you go on a fairly calm day. The way you know if it is too windy is to watch the ends of branches if the leave and little twigs are fluttering it is not too windy if the branch holding the twig is mowing it is too windy. If the who f##king tree is moving forget about it for a week.

If you can set it to about 60-80L/acre you can spray a lot in a short time. using an activator get a quicker kill but on selective sprays can hit grass a bit hard.

Remember also to spray down both sides where you turn as you swing therefore you can be half a boom with out from hedge/ditch/fence

Muckit

iverjohnston wrote: »

Hi Muckit,
All good advice, to which I would add.

1) Fill with water only
2) go to a field/ Paddock that you know the exact size of, 3 acre etc ideal/
3) Spray it with clean water at the correct Revs, Pressure, Gear you intend to stick to for life.
4) How much water left? Any? Now you can adjust the gear so that 400 litres covers 3 acres or whatever.

5) Now put it back in the shed, because its too wet/windy/cold to spray!

Yes this is another very good idea

Blue Holland

I've found spraying ragworth seriously heavy on grass, was mortox 50 i used, unless there in big numbers consider pulling or spot spraying.

bob charles

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Best time to spray is usually late evening as the wind often dies down. Fill sprayer and have the spuds watch a bit of telly and away you go on a fairly calm day. The way you know if it is too windy is to watch the ends of branches if the leave and little twigs are fluttering it is not too windy if the branch holding the twig is mowing it is too windy. If the who f##king tree is moving forget about it for a week.

If you can set it to about 60-80L/acre you can spray a lot in a short time. using an activator get a quicker kill but on selective sprays can hit grass a bit hard.

Remember also to spray down both sides where you turn as you swing therefore you can be half a boom with out from hedge/ditch/fence

if you spray down around 40l and acre you will get twice as much done. My sprayer is around 80l/ha for beet and the best time for spraying is when no one is around to see the drift:rolleyes:, early morning or a dusk or even in the dark if you so wish if there isnt a heavy dew

Mulumpy

Has anyone ever used a drop of washing up liquid in the sprayer. I find it helps spray stick to the leaves if day isnt 100%

towzer2010

Mulumpy wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a drop of washing up liquid in the sprayer. I find it helps spray stick to the leaves if day isnt 100%

I do when spraying rushes. The only problem is it foams up a good bit on rough ground.

pms7

Sprayed docks with Dockstar + Eagle over a week ago.
Dockstar ones dead, Eagle ones bit of colour change.
Is it too cold for Eagle or what?

Mulumpy

towzer2010 wrote: »

I do when spraying rushes. The only problem is it foams up a good bit on rough ground.

Ya a bare drop will do

Farmer Pudsey

Mulumpy wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a drop of washing up liquid in the sprayer. I find it helps spray stick to the leaves if day isnt 100%

Use an activator or sticker it will not foam up as much not expensive about 1 euro/100 litres water so if spraying at 60L/acre it is equivlent to 60C/acre.

pms7 wrote: »

Sprayed docks with Dockstar + Eagle over a week ago.
Dockstar ones dead, Eagle ones bit of colour change.
Is it too cold for Eagle or what?

Different sprays work in different way. Some are residual in that they kill ver slowly I think that eagle is like that. Some kill straigh away . For instance Roundup is residual it goes down ito the root and kills over 2 weeks. Gromoxne an old herbcite just killed straight away.

hugo29

locky like you i purchased the jarmet 300l this spring, still to use it,
great thread lads with lot of brillant information

might be worth printing this thread off and laminating it and sticking to the side of the sprayer:D

Blue Holland

pms7 wrote: »

Sprayed docks with Dockstar + Eagle over a week ago.
Dockstar ones dead, Eagle ones bit of colour change.
Is it too cold for Eagle or what?

Have used Eagle in the past, all it was good for was keeping docks out of silage crop and holding on to your clover but docks back as quick as your after grass.
Used it a few times with same result even spraying at ideal stage in ideal conditions but it always killed off foliage, would be slower than dockstar though.
Have come to conclusion you can't kill docks and hold on to your clover.
Keep us posted how the 2 products have performed in 6 to 8 weeks time.
I've had reasonable results with Starane.

hugo29

what have people used to kill rushes in proposed meadow ground

have a lot rushes in a new proposed meadow ground and want to hit them now before taking silage in mid july

redzerologhlen

hugo29 wrote: »

what have people used to kill rushes in proposed meadow ground

have a lot rushes in a new proposed meadow ground and want to hit them now before taking silage in mid july

Mcpa 50

Farmer Pudsey

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Mcpa 50

make sure to use an activator/sticker this will hit a lot of other weeds and creeping grasses. It will clean up the sward a bit. Try to spray before the sward gets too dense next week might be good. Normally I use little water spraying but in this case you could go up in volume to 80-90L/acre and increase pressure so that spray gets down into other weeds. You will have to use a sticker for the rushes. Is it the bulrush(long thick green rush) as opposed to wire rush ( thin shorter brownish rush) . The bulrush can be killed with MCPA the wire rush needs to be licked with roundup.

You may check the grass a little but that can not be avoided if you wish to kill bulrush with MCPA. It will kill thistles and check Docks not sure about nettles

valtraman

It is very helpfull to know the exact speed the tractor is doing then it should be easy to set the correct rate from sprayer chart
to work out speed measure out 200 or 300 meters exactly along a ditch or lane and mark it it might be useful to have for another time ,now drive along the distance in whatever gear and rpm feels right timing the run in seconds
now lets say 233 meters was a convenient distance to mark so

233 multiplied by 3.6 divided by time in seconds = kilometyers per hour
for the example say it took 104 seconds

233*3.6=838.8/104=8.06 kph
i hope this is clear and helpfull, there is a formula for mph but i dont know it

Blue Holland

valtraman wrote: »

It is very helpfull to know the exact speed the tractor is doing then it should be easy to set the correct rate from sprayer chart
to work out speed measure out 200 or 300 meters exactly along a ditch or lane and mark it it might be useful to have for another time ,now drive along the distance in whatever gear and rpm feels right timing the run in seconds
now lets say 233 meters was a convenient distance to mark so

233 multiplied by 3.6 divided by time in seconds = kilometyers per hour
for the example say it took 104 seconds

233*3.6=838.8/104=8.06 kph
i hope this is clear and helpfull, there is a formula for mph but i dont know it

I find gps speedo on smartphone very handy for this.

brian_t

milkprofit wrote: »

good pair of Gloves
head protection a must

+1

You also need a clearly marked lockable cabinet to store your chemicals in.

Empty containers should be triple rinsed.
In the tillage side of things you need to be able to explain how you have disposed of your empties.

newholland mad

If you can collect rain water in an IBC or similar it is way better than spring water especially if in a hard water area, herbicides and especially roundup work far better.

hugo29

Ok I'm officially thick, hooked up jarmet sprayer turned it on and nothing, 4 small levers two to the booms, 1 to the valve on mid rail and 1 to the top of the tank flipped them all back, turned bucket handle to up position and still nothing, help required

Blue Holland

hugo29 wrote: »

Ok I'm officially thick, hooked up jarmet sprayer turned it on and nothing, 4 small levers two to the booms, 1 to the valve on mid rail and 1 to the top of the tank flipped them all back, turned bucket handle to up position and still nothing, help required

I know nothing about a jarmet but I'd try leaving off lever to top of tank, I'd imagine that's recirculating spray back into to tank and hence no pressure.

Figerty

Mulumpy wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a drop of washing up liquid in the sprayer. I find it helps spray stick to the leaves if day isnt 100%

Funny thing about washing up liquid is that it used to get things off that are stuck on,, yet people thing it is good to make liquid stick to rushes???

I never got that one!

Muckit

Mulumpy wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a drop of washing up liquid in the sprayer. I find it helps spray stick to the leaves if day isnt 100%

Another few tips for anyone new to spraying....

Leave the washing up liquid on the kitchen sink. A wetting agent or 'sticker' is what you need. Activator 90 or similar @ €15.

Also buy yourself a clean (foodgrade) IBC. Stick it up on a trailer or similar stand, fit a cheap ballcock and plumb up to a garden hose. You'I spray a lot of grassland in gig time.

DO NOT go bucketing water from water troughs or streams. There will always be some bit of dirt that will get through tank filter and eventually nozzle filters, then you've blocked nozzle tips :mad: Nothing more annoying than realising too late that you've been using a boom that's missing strips..

royaler83

How much is a 3L bottle of doxstar?! Have heard diff prices from €72 a bottle for a large quantity and saw a price of €96 :eek: in a place today that's usually fairly keen, didn't ask them about it though. Magentadirect.ie are €83 inc delivery

Dampintheattic

Figerty wrote: »

Funny thing about washing up liquid is that it used to get things off that are stuck on,, yet people thing it is good to make liquid stick to rushes???

I never got that one!

Lads that appreciate a nice rush, like to wash it with Fairy Liquid, before killing it -:)

quadboy

Have a load of docks in a field that i want to close for silage soon, would i be better off spraying them or letting sheep into eat them

locky76

royaler83 wrote: »

How much is a 3L bottle of doxstar?! Have heard diff prices from €72 a bottle for a large quantity and saw a price of €96 :eek: in a place today that's usually fairly keen, didn't ask them about it though. Magentadirect.ie are €83 inc delivery

I hear Rebel XT from Farmco will do docks- 3 grams in 100 litres per acre, a 50 gram bottle is €40 so it works out at €2.50 per acre.
The only snag is it's not approved for grassland, it's for barley but it has the same active ingredient as dockstar at a fraction of the price...

Farmer Pudsey

quadboy wrote: »

Have a load of docks in a field that i want to close for silage soon, would i be better off spraying them or letting sheep into eat them

Spray them use hi-load micram

adne

Whats the best choice spray for rushes. Mortone?

redzerologhlen

adne wrote: »

Whats the best choice spray for rushes. Mortone?

Mcpa imo.

adne

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Mcpa imo.

How much ground would a drum of mortone cover as opposed to mcpa.

Which has least affect on grass growth

bob charles

locky76 wrote: »

The only snag is it's not approved for grassland, it's for barley but it has the same active ingredient as dockstar at a fraction of the price...

and incur a 20% penalty in SFP if caught doing it

hugo29

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Mcpa imo.

is mortone and mcpa not from same family tree

redzerologhlen

hugo29 wrote: »

is mortone and mcpa not from same family tree

I dont think so, anybody I know that used Mortone said it had a slower kill and stunted the grass more than Mcpa.

redzerologhlen

adne wrote: »

How much ground would a drum of mortone cover as opposed to mcpa.

Which has least affect on grass growth

I put it out at a liter per acre roughly.

brian_t

hugo29 wrote: »

is mortone and mcpa not from same family tree

Mortone contains MCPA at 30%

http://www.hygeia.ie/professional-page-0-74830.html

hugo29

what oil goes in the Jarmet Sprayer, someone said milking machine oil

PCDave

Guys,can you recommend a good sprayer for a small MF135 that would allow me to spray ditches, along wired fences etc (i.e. angled Boom, be able to shut off one side of the sprayer etc?). Any links or pics of what you are referring to?
We're in the middle of reseeding at the moment and have had the ditches cleaned out on about 30 acres. I need an easy maintenance solution going forward.