Spraying Course

gerryirl

Just a question about the spraying course, Im sure plenty have done it. I was guessing really for years when it came to spraying trying to figure it out off the label on the products. Its too expensive to waste. Im curious to know though when working out how much product you put in the spray

Take a product like Doxstar. It says on the label max dose 2 litres per ha. Then the water volume is 300/400 litres per ha. Now the course calculations never mentions the water volume when working out the mix to put in your sprayer. I have a small Hardi sprayer 200 litres with yellow nozzles. I m working my calculations out that Im going 7kph at 2-3 bar, nozzle spray at .8 litres a minute

So going by course calculations my applicaion rate would be
600 x .8 / 7 / .5 = 137 l/ha

2l/ha x 200 / 137 =2.91 litres

so ld be adding 2.91 litres of product to my 200 litres of water but the doxstar label says 2/l/ha and 300/400 l/ha of water..

hope this makes sense but Im confused

boggerman1

Have the sprayer thing done and to be honest a waste of money.havn't been asked once to know am i qualified.

gerryirl

boggerman1 wrote: »

Have the sprayer thing done and to be honest a waste of money.havn't been asked once to know am i qualified.

its using it right and not wasting product Id be more interested in to be honest

Goeasy123

You need to increase your pressure or decrease your forward speed or both to increase the volume of water per ha so that you can spray to the label recommendation.

Your calculation of 2.91L is the amount of dockstar that you need for a full tank of 200L of water. However your water volume per ha is too low in general for spraying grassland & you meed to increase it so dockstar hits enough dock leaf.

Muckit

Agree with previous poster.

Pm sent Op.

The yellow nozzle is making things difficult. It doesn't give a high volume/water min. Blue or red nozzles are What's recommended really for grassland.

The instructor gave us the hardi chart

gerryirl

Goeasy123 wrote: »

You need to increase your pressure or decrease your forward speed or both to increase the volume of water per ha so that you can spray to the label recommendation.

Your calculation of 2.91L is the amount of dockstar that you need for a full tank of 200L of water. However your water volume per ha is too low in general for spraying grassland & you meed to increase it so dockstar hits enough dock leaf.

I know its too low but I went by the book on the course and thats it .. they never mentioned the water requirements on the product . all they looked for was how much product per ha.. its confusing to say the least

Goeasy123

gerryirl wrote: »

I know its too low but I went by the book on the course and thats it .. they never mentioned the water requirements on the product . all they looked for was how much product per ha.. its confusing to say the least

Guess its because most guys rarely change the volume of water being applied. That forumla you used will help you work out most things anyways. Bit like algebra in school. X is the variable that you need.

Agree with Muckit though, different colour nozzles will allow you to put out more water. Generally 250l/ha will do a good job on grassland.

Nekarsulm

A lot seems to depend on the course instructor. The lad we had made us measure the output per minute of several nozzles on the machine, and then calculate output/ha. He also give us the different nozzle colour outputs etc.

SuperTortoise

boggerman1 wrote: »

Have the sprayer thing done and to be honest a waste of money.havn't been asked once to know am i qualified.

The point of the course is to educate lads on the proper way to spray, and the importance of using the right ammounts or chemicals, and the environmental effects of not doing so.

I picked up a ton of stuff i now use when i'm spraying that i never would have known or found out about.
I think it's great value.

Farmer

I think there would have been more respect for the courses if they hadn't been seen as such a rip off. Somebody lifting 2 grand for two days work, with often a volunteer providing tractor or sprayer and maybe co-op providing the premises. I understand there are overheads, training, travel etc but most people work at lest a fortnight for that kind of money. Many work a month!

Nekarsulm

Farmer wrote: »

I think there would have been more respect for the courses if they hadn't been seen as such a rip off. Somebody lifting 2 grand for two days work, with often a volunteer providing tractor or sprayer and maybe co-op providing the premises. I understand there are overheads, training, travel etc but most people work at lest a fortnight for that kind of money. Many work a month!

And then to be told your FETAC level 5 "qualification" expires in a few years.....
While a lad across the border doing the same qualification with City & Guilds has it for life...

gerryirl

Nekarsulm wrote: »

A lot seems to depend on the course instructor. The lad we had made us measure the output per minute of several nozzles on the machine, and then calculate output/ha. He also give us the different nozzle colour outputs etc.

That's what we did but Water amount aplliacation per ha was never mentioned which makes it confusing

gerryirl

I found this on the web. It seems to be right. Its better than one I got on the course where it never mentions the water rate , this one does. I was going too fast for the nozzles I had plus when my speed was wrong so was my dose.

Muckit

What did l tell ya! The yellow nozzles will do the trick once you don't mind going slower. You'll to a great job with the finer mist too.

gerryirl

Muckit wrote: »

What did l tell ya! The yellow nozzles will do the trick once you don't mind going slower. You'll to a great job with the finer mist too.

:)

I think 3 kph is a fast as I can go

rangler1

gerryirl wrote: »

:)

I think 3 kph is a fast as I can go

you could always throw away the manual, fill the sprayer with just water and measure how far it goes, then you'll be sure of the area it covers at 7kph and 3bar.
Then add the required amount for the area after that, I've used all sorts of sprayers and it was always the way that I worked it out even for cereal crops.
I'm using a 100ltr quad sprayer now that does an acre at 5kph, so just put enough of the herbicide in for an acre.
It's too expensive to get wrong as you say

Chris 2000

hi
you probably have the doxstar out at this stage. hope it worked well. However 2.9lt is far too much in a 200lt sprayer. If using 400lt/ha water a 200lt sprayer will treat 1/2 ha.
I would recommend to use 300lt water per ha. Therefore a 200lt sprayer will treat 2/3ha.
DoxstarPro full rate is 2.0lt/ha therefore use 1.35lt in a 200lt sprayer to treat 2/3ha.
I would also thinks the yellow nozzle are not ideal for using in grassland. difficult to get the water volume rate up and it can produce a too fine a mist. if you have to travel a 3kph they are possibly too small. A coarse spray at 300lt ha has show to give the best long term control of docks with DoxstarPro. If doing a lot of spraying in the future it might be worth getting a set of nozzle suitable for grassland.
hope that is of help.

gerryirl

Chris 2000 wrote: »

hi
you probably have the doxstar out at this stage. hope it worked well. However 2.9lt is far too much in a 200lt sprayer. If using 400lt/ha water a 200lt sprayer will treat 1/2 ha.
I would recommend to use 300lt water per ha. Therefore a 200lt sprayer will treat 2/3ha.
DoxstarPro full rate is 2.0lt/ha therefore use 1.35lt in a 200lt sprayer to treat 2/3ha.
I would also thinks the yellow nozzle are not ideal for using in grassland. difficult to get the water volume rate up and it can produce a too fine a mist. if you have to travel a 3kph they are possibly too small. A coarse spray at 300lt ha has show to give the best long term control of docks with DoxstarPro. If doing a lot of spraying in the future it might be worth getting a set of nozzle suitable for grassland.
hope that is of help.

Thanks man . ya your spot on about the nozzles. Im happy with the results I got but it was painfull driving that slow. Think Ill change tem for next year. What ones would you recommend with a 200 litre sprayer in mind

Chris 2000

gerryirl wrote: »

Thanks man . ya your spot on about the nozzles. Im happy with the results I got but it was painfull driving that slow. Think Ill change tem for next year. What ones would you recommend with a 200 litre sprayer in mind

A good option is to get an Hypro Guardian air inclusion nozzle. These make the droplets larger and are ideal for grassland spraying. Less drift and good coverage. You can use lower water volume with them too. With DoxstarPro you can use it at 200lt/ha with this nozzle. That would be handy for your sprayer - 1ha at a time. I use them in my 600lt sprayer to do 3ha.

50HX

or a cheaper way is if the nozzle itself(jet) can be popped out of the holder just stick in a 110-03 flat fan nozzle and that shift you from 0.8l/min to 1.2l/min @3bar

deepends on your ground speed if you can really motor on safely you could go to the 110-04 which is 1.6l/min