I’d probably do it. Normally I’d recommend really checking out a sprayer, but a few hundred is a pretty small risk. These type sprayers are pretty simple really. Tank, pump, blower. I think if you don’t mine working with it, it would probably make a decent sprayer.
I know an orchard in the KC area who has more acres of fruit trees than I. Last I checked, they use a 3 point sprayer which looks like the one pictured.
Here is a 3 point orchard sprayer on Craigslist for $1800. It’s a John Bean, which are really good sprayers, but a 3 point sprayer for a few hundred is definitely worth attention because of the price. Heck the tank and frame is just about worth that.
I would take a chance for a few hundred dollars. Looks like an A1 Mist sprayer or something similar. I believe I see a bunch of oil leaking around the hydraulic cylinder that moves the volute. Probably need to replace the pump too. Looks like a roller pump which are inexpensive compared to Centrifugal and Diaphragm Pumps. May be possible to move the volute with a 12VDC actuator or even position it where you want it and leave it there.
@thecityman What did you end up doing, did you ever get something more suitable to spraying the # of trees you have?
I made it through this season spraying 350 trees and the nursery bed with a “spot sprayer” wand on an ATV/UTV unit with a pathetic pump (essentially a re-branded FIMCO). It got to the point where it took me over a day to spray and our poor Gator was so covered with sticker and pesticide it looked white.
I’m looking for something, was considering a newer unit mounted on a pallet, or hoping to pick up something used for the 3 pt on the tractor. I’m looking at the used listings as well. I’m now @ 579 trees in the orchard and hope to move the final 38 trees this spring. My current sprayer just isn’t going to work.
Nope. That would be an illegal application. Instead, the nozzles and pressure are adjusted to produce droplets that will not drift.
Nope again. Commercial pesticides are very concentrated and the dosage is per acre, not per gallon. The applicator will calibrate their spray by first making a trial run a few days prior, spraying only water. From that, the quantity of water per acre or total acreage is discovered. For the actual spray, the tank is loaded with the proper amount of water and the dosage for the amount of acreage.
As you probably noticed, these sprayers are tractor pulled or truck mounted. You need a pesticide applicators license to legally operate them and dispense non-retail pesticides.
Another option for you is to contract with an agricultural spray firm (not structural pesticide). These folks have all the equipment, permits, and pesticides. They will help you get a permit to have the pesticides applied at your site.
We do everything possible to try to reduce drift on our airblast sprayer but when the pressure is 150 psi or higher some drift is going to occur. Spraying when the wind is very low perhaps less than 2 MPH helps and adjusting the deflectors to force the spray where it needs to go helps too. We sometimes spray at night in order to take advantage of the low wind conditions.
Some large growers have very modern sprayers with electronics that will automatically adjust the nozzle flow and pressure depending on the crop and conditions. Electrostatic sprayers that charge the spray particles in a way that they are attracted to the trees are available too. I have seen this type of sprayer used on grapes and understand they are pretty common on Almonds too. I noticed almost no overspray when the vineyard next to me sprays with his European electrostatic sprayer.
I have an applicators license but none is required for my state when using an Air Blast sprayer with materials that are not restricted use. Not sure about other places.
We have a 50 gallon AB and adjust our nozzles and pressure in order to spray 50 gallons per acre on both Apples and Peaches in order to simplify chemical measurements.
Hi Andy! Boy can I feel your pain. I have about 140 trees these days I dread spray days like you wouldn’t believe. I cannot imagine 350, let alone 579!!!
I wish I could be of more help, but I never bought any kind of air assisted sprayer. I did buy a new electric sprayer but its just a slightly larger version of the same kind I was using and is probably like what you said you are using. I did figure out a way to mount it onto my tractor and got a super-long hose. So, I now am able to just sit on my tractor, and drive through the orchard and pray all my trees one at a time. I get it done but it takes about 4-5 hours (which corelates almost perfectly to yours taking about 1.5 days for 350 trees. I’m still not happy with my system and would still love to upgrade, so by all means, keep me/us posted with whatever you decide to do.
BTW…I couldn’t help but chuckle when you mentioned your gator being covered when you finished. My tractor not only gets sticky with a thick coat of sticker, but then the spray itself dries (Imidan) and the whole tractor is absolutely white. Not just a thin shade of white, but rather its so thick that it looks like my blue tractor is a white one. YIKES! I can just hear our organic friends on here screaming and I get it, because I get covered with the same layer of sticky poison!!! (I do wear a jumpsuit, mask, cap, gloves most of the time, but of course that isn’t close to being foolproof)
@blueberrythrill That is an AWESOME resource, Rick. Thanks for that. I just scanned it for now (at work!) but will absolutely be fully reading all that later with more time and detail
One of the best things I ever purchased was a powered pesticide helmet. It never fogs up and it keeps the spray out of my face when the wind shifts. A Tyvek suit and a pesticide helmet is a great combination. I hate to spray chemicals but in my area no chemicals means no fruit.
For comparison purposes I spray about 800 apple trees or 1 acre in just about 1 hour with my Air Blast. Takes a little less time to spray an acre of peaches. Don’t see many used AB sprayers like the John Bean model that Olpea posted for $1800.
I thought we were friends, but now that you rubbed in that bit about you spraying 800 trees in an hour, I don’t think I can talk to you anymore! hahaha Just kidding, of course. But that really is amazing!!!
I do use a tyvek suit…that is the coveralls I mentioned wearing. I probably should look into a pesticide helmet. @mamuang uses one and has encouraged me to do so. I’m sure I’d use it on most days but I’m thinking on those 95 degree, humid days I might not!
We had to make spraying which is a task we hated into something we could tolerate.
It cost a bundle of money but a couple acres of fruit is worth a lot more.
Added electric valves to the AB too so we can turn the spray off or on for either side from a toggle switch at the tractor seat. Helps to save chemicals and overspray where we are missing a tree in a row and at the end of each row.
We used a standard full face mask before the pesticide helmet. The mask was hot and tended to fog up so we could not see where we were going. The helmet removes the requirement for a respirator “fit test.” Not sure if the fit test is a OSHA or a state requirement but its active when any label requires the use of a respirator when loading or spraying. I learned about the requirement when the pesticide inspector showed up to check my spray records.
The helmet is made by Kasco. It was reasonable when we bought it a few years ago
I know this is an old thread, wondering how you did this. I have rigged up a thing but mine kind of sucks. It’s basically that I added a long vinyl tube between the wand and the trigger. I then stuck the spray wand on a long piece of PVC. Unfortunately, I have to lower and raise the wand, because some of my trees are 25-30’ tall which makes it extra tedious. I have around 60 trees and it’s pretty painful.
I do wear tyvek coveralls with booties and hood, gloves, and full facemask respirator. None of which I find too uncomfortable. The part I hate is just how long/hard it is to spray each tree this way.
Oh I feel your pain…I hate spraying more and more every year.
So I do mine 2 ways, neither of which really makes it easy. But first, what you need to know is that I’m not talking about any kind of stationary hose set up, which it sounds like you may be trying to do. Certainly there are some sprayers that have a boom attached and the boom can be stood up. But everyone I’ve talked to say that method doesn’t spray upwards much at all. I just use the $250 tractor Supply 25 gallon tank with an electric pump and a hand held hose.
WHen I say 2 ways, I only mean I have mounted my tank two ways. My favorite way is to actually set my tank (25 gallon) on top of my pull-behind finishing mower, and I use those elastic motorcycle straps to tie it securely onto the top of the mower. Of course I disengage the blade on the mower when doing this. I then just bought a 20 foot long hose - the regular, black rubber kind that comes with a sprayer and tank. Then I can sit on my tractor, hold the wand, and make a circle around the tree very slowly- spraying from top to bottom as I go around. Its the best way I’ve found, but its not great and a far cry from a ag air sprayer where you just drive up a row of trees and it fogs them. Those cost over $5k so I can’t justify it.
The only other difference is I sometimes mount the tank on back of my tractor without the mower attached, but it takes a long time to attach it this way since there is no good, solid deck to sit it on.
I’m not sure if what I’m trying for qualifies as a “stationary hose setup”. I just need to be able to spray a tree which is 30’ tall. Will the TSC sprayer you have spray that high?
In order to spray these tall trees I have attached the wand to a long hose and I have a long piece of PVC. I then can hold the “wand” up at like 20-25’ to spray, as if I was standing on a big ladder.
However, this is very cumbersome.
I am nervous with something like this: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/fimco-25-gal-pro-series-spot-sprayer
that when it says it sprays 25’ vertically it means that It will put out a tiny narrow stream that reaches 25’ and I won’t really be able to spray a tree with it. I don’t mind if it is a bit tedious - as long as it’s possible.
I’ve been able to spray some wild crabs around the house by standing in the back of the Gator with the sprayer. This gives me enough height to reach the top of these large trees. You do have to narrow down the spray pattern / stream, but you can still get a bit of spread on the spray pattern at the end of it’s reach. That was with a pitiful 15 gal sprayer with a 1 GPM electric motor. This year I’m using a 40 gal sprayer with an electric 2.4 GPM motor and 60 psi. These are Countyline (Tractor Supply) and they appear to be re-badged Fimco’s.
Sorry its been a week since I checked in. I use the exact sprayer @AndySmith just described (2.4 GPM, and 60 psi. And yes, just like andy said, I can reach the height you are talking about (30 feet) and more with it. Again, as Andy said, you do have to narrow the stream a bit to get really high, but not to the point you are thinking of in your post. It still delivers a good stream of spray even at 35 feet. You have to sort of move it around more to get good coverage (meaning it doesn’t just spray a big mist or wide shot) but it doesn’t take long to cover tops of a tall tree.
On the downside, though (there is always a downside!) when you shoot a stream (even a fairly thin one like we are describing) it uses your spray in much higher volumes and empties your tank much faster than if you choke the spray down in a mist/wide umbrella pattern.
Thanks @thecityman & @AndySmith! I did end up getting this FIMCO sprayer from TSC: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/fimco-25-gal-pro-series-spot-sprayer?cm_vc=-10005 (It is 25 gal sprayer that’s driven with 12V battery, has 2.4gpm pump and a spray gun instead of a wand.) It did work fine for my tall trees - I started at the top with spraying so excess kind of dripped down. The biggest problem I had was not accidently blasting off fruit/blossoms.
It is a huge improvement to what I was doing before. I have ~65 standard size trees that are full grown (and overgrown in some cases!) and I was able to spray in about 4 hours (but I am new to all this, so I’m sure that will get shorter). I also got way less on me and my stuff with this sprayer. Before, I was really struggling to even get coverage on the trees. I don’t have a gator, but I hooked a cart to my zero turn mower and put this in the cart.
I will say I sprayed at a time when there was very, very little wind. When there was zero wind it was actually kind of a problem because I’d just kind of end up in a cloud of spray. When there was a tiny bit of wind it was better because I knew which way it was going and I could stand upwind of where I wanted the spray to go.
I read the this and other threads and know the caveats about making sure to put -20F wiper fluid or RV antifreeze through the sprayer before winter (my manual actually did say to do this) and about cleaning the sprayer after using it.
The manual suggested for cleaning: filling the tank half full of water spraying that out, then putting some more water for a rinse. I read people are adding dish soap, should I do that?
What are people doing when they clean the tank? Do they spray that somewhere specific? just in the grass? do you pour out the cleaning water somewhere specific? There are still diluted chemicals in there so I hesitate to just dump it out wherever.
I’d be curious to know what people get told to do when they are taking the special pesticide use classes - where to put wash water.
Suffice it to say, I use the powdered Tractor Supply tank detergent concentrate rather than any household cleansers. A little goes a long way and preserves the “rubber parts” in the sprayer pump.
As far as effluent goes … well, there is some, and the compost pile is nearby. That’s all I say.
I looked up my own question about certified people should do with the rinse water. The “National Pesticide Applicator Certification Core Manual” says you should either spray it on something where it is on label, use it as a diluent for future pesticide mixture, or dispose of it according to the label as if it was the concentrate.
Can you lower the height of your trees, or hire it done? 60 trees sounds like a huge orchard to me. How will you pick the fruit or thin the fruit or scout in the tops for blight, etc?