So I got my annual spray order yesterday from the local co-op. I ordered “CAPTAN 50 WP” just like I always do. They had all $300 worth of my products in a big box so I just paid and came home with them. (I know, who doesn’t check what they are buying?!? ha).
I get home and open the box and the photo below shows what they gave me. It’s called “Captan Gold, 80 WDG”. I’ve never seen this in my life so I don’t have a clue how to use it. Worse yet, there is no label or any information with it (yes, I’m sure its illegal for them to sell it without the label). I already found the label booklet online so I’ll decipher that later.
But I wanted to just ask you all about it first. Anone use this form of Captan? Will it mix up in my tank ok? Any idea how much I use per gallon?
Are there any advantages of this formulation over the 50 WP? I assume its slightly more concentrated so hopefully it will take less than the WP???
Any info appreciated.
**MAJOR UPDATE!!!**
I’m sorry I didn’t do a search of this site before posting. But I did one now and sure enough, there is a 7 year old thread about this product already on GF. org. I’ve posted a link to it below.
I almost deleted this thread since the other one exists, but since its 7 years old I wanted to revisit the issue and make sure advice given back then was correct and still applies.
The first thing that comes to mind is that I seem to have come out ahead on my purchase… What I mean is, they actually charged me for what I ordered…the Captan 50 WP. which is $35 for 5 pounds. The 80 WDG that I got is in a 6.25 pound bag. THe mix ratio seems to be the same or even less. The thread from 7 years ago had people saying anywhere from 1 to 1.5 Tablespoons per gallon. That is about what 50WP calls for but I got an extra 1.25 pounds which is significant!
Anyway, this is all good stuff and I’d be interested if anyone has any updates on mix rates. The old discussion had some varying estimates. Thanks.
Mark aka @Olpea has mentioned he uses Captan 80.
I think for small time, backyard growers, Captan 50 is more common in store.
My first time using Captan was yesterday. Got the acidified water right but mixing Captan directly into a bucket of water was awful. It did not dissolve well at all. Look like I need to mix it with small amount of water to make mud-like mixture before adding it to the rest of the water.
That is very strange to me TIPPY. Are you using the wetable powder. ie 50 WP? I never had the slightest problem getting it to mix and I just do it right in my spray tank (no bucket). What I do is fill my sprayer tanks about 1/2 way full with water and add my acidifier. I then put the captan (and Pinene II, and so on) directly into the sprayer tank that is half full of water. Then I use the pressure nozzle on my hose to fill the remaining half of the tank. I use the pressure nozzle (just a regular hose nozzle, not a real pressure washer) to do the mixing. By spraying the hard stream of water into the tank it does a great job of churning up everything I’ve added and mixing it well. Then when I’m done I just shake the tank up for good measure and it all seems fine. This even works for my Kocide 3000 copper which is one of the harder things I have to mix.
I notice mark “liked” this thread so he is lurking! haha How about it, @Olpea …can you tell me what ratio you use to mix Captan 80 wdg? Other thread debated between 1 tbls and 1.5 tbls. Thanks
I’ve not used captan 50, but the 80 percent dissolves reasonably easy for me. If I’m mixing in a small pump up sprayer, or a 60 gal. pull behind. I just fill the tank about 1/2 full, put the acidifier in, then dump the captan in, then finish filling, then stir with a stick.
If I’m filling the airblast, I do pretty much the same thing, except it has a mesh basket. I dump the captan in the basket then use a hose to wash it through the mesh. I’ve never tried to mix it in a bucket of water, but I can’t think why it wouldn’t mix like that. I’m wondering if it has something to do with your specific captan 50 formulation? The 50% would have to have more filler (less active ingredient). Maybe the filler in your formulation doesn’t mix as well?
Hi Kevin,
I think either one is in the ball park, depending on how much water is used in the spray equipment.
I’ve started using less water for my hand spraying, so I’d go with the 1.5 tbls. If you are really soaking the trees good, I’d back off to 1 tbls per gal.
I like the captan 80 because it’s cheaper. It’s had a 24 hr REI, whereas the captan 50 had a 3 day REI. I think they’ve since changed captan 50 to a 24 hr. REI.
You might consider adding your acidifier before you add your captan. I know it sounds picky, but captan has a half life of 10 min at a pH of 8, so even if it takes a couple minutes to add the acidifier, you may be losing some of your product. Our water pH is very high (above 9). I think I read once that captan has a half life of 2 min. at 9 pH, so it’s imperative for me to add the acidfier first.
Sounds like things are going well on the fruit front for you. That’s great!
I use Captan Gold 80WDG and have had very good results with it. I calculated 4 teaspoons per gallon, which falls right in with the 1-1.5 tablespoons per gallon previously noted. Not sure if you opened this bag yet, but this stuff is sort of pelletized (I’ve never used the 50) and I have had no issues with it dissolving and mixing with the water. I often spray Captan 80 and Imidan together with some NuFilm 17. If I recall, it should not be sprayed with horticultural oil.
For a hand held 2 gal. tank, I use a quart mason jar filled about 3/4 full of water and add Captan 80WDG, then shake, shake, shake. You can look thru the bottom of the jar to see how well the pellets are dissolved. I mix all my sprays this way.
@Olpea The above quote is just to show you that I actually did something right for once! haha. Like I said, I do actually add my acidifier before my Captan. The other reason I wanted to show you what I said is to give credit where credit is due…YOU are the one who originally told me to add acidifier AND to do so before even putting the captan in the water. My posts are also so short, sussinct, and to the point that I can’t imagine how you missed that one sentence about the order I add my acidifier! haha (that is sarcasm at its finest if you didn’t know! haha)
BTW, @mamuang and I have been having a discussion lately about adding vinegar as an acidifier, which is what I use. As I recall, you use citric acid. I have only tested my water once, it was a few years ago, and it was 6.9. But I never had much confidence in that because I just used one of those little test kits from walmart or somewhere and felt like it probably wasn’t much help.
I’d like to use citric acid too but here is rural TN it can’t be found. Do you buy yours locally or order it online? If you order it, can you give me your source? Is what you use just regular citric acid in food grade or is it specifically for use as an acidifier for sprays? When I google it I see some sold as food grade for candy making/cooking, and some apparently used as a organic cleaning agent. I haven’t looked in great detail but I didn’t notice any information about what strength each is? I would assume some citric acid is more concentrated than other??? You get what I’m asking…just need a little help in finding and buying the right stuff for acidifying my captan water. Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Tippy is using the 50 WP which is a powder. Thats why I was surprised she was having a hard time getting it to dissolve. I didn’t realize that the 80 is pelletized until @AndySmith told me just now (thanks Andy, and for the confirmation on mixture rates)… But sounds like you have a good system, Johnnie. And it sounds like I may need to use it now that I have the 80 WDG granules instead of the powder.
@thecityman I have been using the identical item as you posted for years. I think it works fine. I used to buy 8 oz 50w captan, then I wised up and bought the 80W one. I remember I did some conversion based on the 50 W captan per gallon instruction, only using 5/8 of 80W.
Kevin,
I admitted, I did not plan well re. dissolving Captan. Captan powder does not dissolve well at all, unlike Surround or micronized sulfur. I like @jaypeedee’s method and will copy that. Thanks, Johnnie.
I’ll see if adding Captan to myclobutanil will give me a better result against blossom blight and brown rot. If so, I could upgrade it to the Gold level you have
We premix some chemicals in hot water before dumping them into the sprayer to help them dissolve
Also moved to Captan liquid 4L a few years ago. It’s more expensive but we made the move since the Captan wettable powder created a lot of dust when mixing that was hard to avoid.
Not nearly as much dust from the WDG formulation on the bag in the picture which is a big advantage.
I’m sorry Kevin. I completely misread your earlier post. Trying to read too fast.
I generally order mine simply from ebay. I have ordered it from a chemical supplier before, but in the past it’s been just as cheap to order it off ebay. I think things may be changing though, because shipping is getting so expensive.
I use food grade citric acid. If it’s food grade, I’m pretty sure it’s all the same potency, regardless of where you get it. Soft drink manufacturers put it in soft drinks, I’d think it would have to be consistent for that. The main reason I use food grade is because that’s what’s most available. But it’s also nice to have the food grade because I use citric acid when canning salsa.
I keep the food grade in a clean uncontaminated bucket, then dole some out in a gallon bucket, which I use for acidifying water for pesticides. That way my food grade source remains food grade.
Citric acid has gone up substantially in the last year or two. There was a shortage of it, and the price had more than doubled. I used to be able to get a 50# bucket for $100 which included shipping. I was running a little short last fall. I could hardly even find a 50# bucket of it, so I just bought 20# for $108.
Now it’s come down some. The same supplier is selling 20# for less than $100 including shipping. Plus I see some 50# buckets now. They are selling for about $200 including shipping.
It sounds like your water isn’t too alkaline, which is nice for spraying.
As I’ve told you in the past, I generally spray Captan and myclo together- which I understand is somewhat redundant. It also makes it impossible for me to know which one is doing better at fighting brown rot. I’ve often read that Myclo isn’t good for brown rot and if that is true then captan works well. If (and that is a BIG “if” for me!) I apply that combination every 10-14 Days then it does a very good job controlling brown rot on peaches. But I will also tell you that it does considerably better when applied every 10 days than every 14, and if I go more than 14 days then it dramatically changes the extent of brownrot I will have. It wont really show up much on day 15, etc but later in the season when peaches start to ripen, the brown rot will be much more prevalent if I had some 15 day plus windows without spray at anytime after shuck split up to harvest.
Again, I’ve never noticed a problem dissolving my captan powder! Then again, my set up and methods are quite different from yours. I dump mine into a large 25 gallon tank, then blast it with my hose pipe set on a high pressure stream and it REALLY churns up everything in the tank. Last but not least, my sprayer has a little recirculating line inside the tank that constantly keeps mixing the tank contents. I also shake it by hand at first and again every 15 minutes or so. Plus it bounces around like crazy while I’m towing it with my tractor. I am telling you all this just so you understand why I say I haven’t had a mixing problem and you have.
@Olpea Thanks very much for the citric acid information! I bet Tippy will appreciate it too because we have both been trying to find the best way to acidify our water for Captan. As for missing what I said…haha- as I jokingly said, its not hard to miss something in one of my novel-length posts! haha
So yea, you are forgiven!
Everything I’ve read suggests that you are 100% correct. So thanks for that. I still feel I benefit from my concoction. I spray a very large variety of things and its easier for me to just mix 25 gallons at a time and use it on everything instead of mixing 2 gallons at a time and having to custom mix each time. I’m sure the generalized approach floors a lot of people since it results in the use of and exposure to some “chemicals” that aren’t necessary in some cases, but I’m ok with it and it works out ok for me. I use this for grapes, apples, pears, cherries, peaches, nects, plums, pluots, and more along with MANY berries and a few nuts. In no way am I suggesting that my little spray mix should be considered some kind of grand, all-purpose spray that anyone else should use. Even I do tweak it a little for certain things. But it is a decent way for me to quickly spray all my stuff.
I came from an angle that one medicine alone may not be as effective as a combo of it. Myclo alone may not work well on brown rot (I can attest to that myself). However, it must have some effect, otherwise; it would not be listed on the label. Myclo for brown rot could work in area that is not as humid as the east coast.
I have added Captan to see if the combo would work better/more effective than each of them alone.
From what I saw myclo slowed rot down, but by no means kept it from spreading. I’m on Captan this year, but I have dozens of sprays that did not make the cut and like @thecityman I’ll mix them in with the captan.
I love hearing you and @Robert to some degree say its ok or even beneficial to use Myclo and Captan both. I must tell you that I’ve been chastised by others here multiple times for doing so. I’m told that using both is redundant and that using a spray that isn’t indicated or effective is a poor practice- that I’m unnecessarily exposing myself and the environment to chemicals for no reason. This is why I’m gun shy about admitting that I do this and a bit defense about it as well. But as you guys have both said, I find benefit in doing so and don’t believe its such a terrible thing as some apparently feel it is. We’ve all agreed that Myclo and Captan are good at fighting some things and poor at fighting others, so using them in combination helps me combat different problems. Also, as I’ve said, it gives me the ability to use the same tank of ingredients to spray apples, pears, cherries, peaches, grapes, and more. Again, though, I’ve been chastised for this approach by well meaning folks who say its wasteful and introduces more chemicals than necessary to the environment and to myself. I respectfully contend that for my orchard with a fair number of trees and bushes and in wide varieties, it makes sense. I’m glad to see at least a couple of you agree.
