I’m a little disappointed by the performance of my spraying tools lately.
Does anybody have suggestions for hose end sprayers, hand-pump tank sprayers, or (not sure what to call this) some kind of in-line chemical dispenser so I can use a sprinkler to hit my lawn with crabgrass spray? I’ve got about 30 pots, 20 gallons each, maybe 150 sq feet of garden, and about a dozen trees to handle.
Also, I’m suddenly questioning if using a liquid fertilizer is a good idea for pots. Won’t most of the useful ions flow out the bottom? I’ve been using a 5-1-1 mix, so it’s pretty dry and doesn’t have a lot of retention. I’m also considering adding something like expanded clay so at least something retains some moisture during the summer.
What used to take 45 to an hour with a hand pump sprayer and two refills , has changed since I now use a battery run sprayer. Whole spray time is one half hour for 30 trees. Small time here!
I own a 2 gallon Chapin pump sprayer which I am happy with. My bad right should is not so happy lately on pumping the tank so I went to a chapin electric ATV sprayer. I got the one that has 70 PSI and a 16 gallon tank. Then I got a yellow gorilla cart with 13" pneumatic tires to manually pull it around the orchard. My orchard is flat so the cart works great! I am well pleased with my Chapin electric
sprayer. I run it off my 12 volt deep cycle battery that I already had.
The task of spraying 23 trees plus some grapevines is greatly reduced but it is more work to clean out the large 16 gallon tank sprayer. Still wonderful as I can now keep my orchard. My shoulder injury had me worried. Now if I could just had the strength to use a loping shears again instead of relying so much on my pruning saw for mighty small cuts. I suppose someone must make a portable electric pruners too?
I hope this thread isn’t too old… I can move it if needed.
I too have about 20 apple & nectarine trees (semi-dwarf) and some grapes. I’ve gotten to the point where my 2-gallon, hand-pumped, garden-sprayer just can’t seem to do the job anymore. My main issue is that I cannot reach the tops of the 10-12 foot tall trees anymore -even with my arm and the wand fully extended. I can’t seem to get enough pressure to reach the rest of the way either.
So, my question is: What sprayer is best suited for this sort of task? My orchard is clearly too small for a $2000, 60-gallon, 3-point hitched, PTO-driven sprayer. (Mixing 2 gallons or less would never reach the pump in such a large sprayer anyway.) It’s too big for a little 2-gallon, hand-pump, garden-sprayer. I have an old 15-gallon ATV sprayer tank but the pump is shot. I can easily replace it but I don’t really know what sort of size is needed. From what I’ve seen of the possibly replacement pumps, the bolt-patterns are the same but the PSI and the GPM change significantly. The bad pump, that I pulled off of the tank, was 2.2-GPM @ 70 PSI. I’ve also seen 4.5-GPM @ 60 PSI pumps out there. I just don’t know what to get.
@Spartan said his setup is running on a 70-psi pump. However, what’s the GPM for your 12-volt pump? What nozzle are you using? What kind of reach can one expect from a similar setup?
I bought an electric sprayer from Chapin. Spot sprayer. Very happy with it except for the drain. The The drain is threaded on 2 sides only and after using for 2 years the drain plug starts leaking and I end up having to purchase a new seal for the drain plug. Not a big deal. The pump runs up to 60 PSI and and the metal spray wand has an adjustable cone nozzle that works very well and sprays up to 16’ easily.
Gallons per minute? Not sure if 1.2 or 2.5. I would have to look up the specs on the model I got from Chapin. It pumps it thru fairly fast and I am very happy with the unit.
I picked up a 2.2 GPM, 70 PSI diaphragm pump. Basically, it should be an apples to apples replacement for the one I pulled off the little 15 GAL ATV sprayer tank. Hoping it’ll reach the top of these trees.