Improving Spray Results Part 2

Improving Spray Results Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

Yesterday we began a conversation with WSU's Gwen Hoheisel regarding the improvement of your orchard spraying. Hoheisel said that the key is to get the spray droplets where you need them and for the most part growers tend to use too much air pressure.

HOHEISEL: So some easy ways to do that now especially in early season is to reduce your fan speed. We have too much air out there so reduce your fan speed via your gearbox. Cornell has these donuts. They come in multiple different shapes but you can put in the back of a sprayer and it basically just reduces your air flow.

She says there are new machines that adjust. But she also says it's important to hit the right part of the canopy.

HOHEISEL: So our vertical spray patterns don't always match what our canopy shape is. And the solution is to look at it, look at where we're depositing it.

And that leads to the key of spraying and that is covering the target.

HOHEISEL: The first this is we have to understand boundary layers. So boundary layers are a little layer of air that surround objects and there is a rule that thinner, smaller objects can get covered easier than larger objects. If you understand that concept that's huge. And when we think about when we need to be more on target with sprays. If you had grapes you would want more open clusters. So think about when we have apples. Smaller apples, larger apples. What's going to be harder. later season sprays for getting good coverage versus early season sprays?

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.