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RPM Soils, LLC

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Effective spraying

One of the highlights of our 3 days in Wisconsin was spending one of those days in class with Andrew Landers.  He is an agricultural engineering professor from Cornell.  He is a true teacher. not just a lecturer.  Spending the day with him convinced me that there is no perfect sprayer, at least not for orchards and vineyards.  We were able to see demonstrations of conventional orchard sprayers and some innovative farmer made sprayers.  He convinced me that sprayers that deliver the right material to the right place are key to orchard and vineyard management.

One of the "new" products that he discussed and demonstrated was an air induction nozzle.  It seems that the nozzle makes larger droplets for a given delivery rate, but retains the accuracy and coverage of a conventional flat fan nozzle.  It is worth a try even in field crops.  The air induction nozzle should cut way back on drift problems.

His book on effective vineyard spraying is excellent.

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