Gauteng Smallholder Gauteng Smallholder September 2017 | Page 9

NEWS
Dispenser delivers precise amount, accurately
I
f you have ever tried to
fertilize by hand the plants
in a large vegetable patch
Back-breaking hand fertlization
F rom page 5
with individual dollops of
granular fertilizer you will
have learnt two things: firstly,
grabbing a handful of fertilizer
and dropping it sort-of next to
the plant results in a wasteful
imprecision, firstly in the
quantity delivered, and
secondly in the area over
which it spreads. Secondly,
trying to deliver a precise
amount, precisely to the
plant's root area using a cup or
a mug is slow, and backbreak-
ing.
Enter the ever-inventive
Michris Janse van Rensburg of
Backsaver with his latest
invention, a hand-held
fertilizer dispenser that
delivers a precise amount,
precisely where you want it, ie
at the base of the stem of the
plant.
The device comprises a steel
tube about the length of a
walking stick, at the top of
which is a cylinder with a
moving lever and a fixed
handle.
In the cylinder is a semi-
circular Vesconite plate with a
hole drilled in it, the diameter
of the hole being exactly
aligned with the amount of
fertilizer commonly delivered
in a one-shot dose (the device
comes with two such plates
SASFOX.CO.ZA
of the magazine nine years
ago, we have launched this
online presence to better
serve the needs of our readers
who are increasingly switching
to the immediacy of online
advertising to buy and sell
their farming equipment and
produce.
Indeed, since we started the
magazine 18 years ago with a
huge presence of classified
advertising running to a
number of pages each month,
we have seen the steady
growth of classified advertising
sites such as Gumtree, OLX
and Junk Mail, with the result
that our paper-based classi-
fied advertising has dimin-
ished in just the same way as
it has for daily and regional
newspapers.
As far as the current general
online advertising sites are
concerned however, although
they have many visitors, their
content sometimes leaves
much to be desired, and
potential buyers are left to
browse through pages of
often unmoderated, poorly
worded and irrelevant
advertisements to find those
Continued on page 8
7
www.sasmallholder.co.za
for different delivery quanti-
ties ~ 2,5 g and 5 g ~ and a
blank plate which, van
Rensburg says, can be drilled
to any size to deliver custom
amounts as required.)
Attached to the cylinder is a
flexible pipe connected to a
soft canvas backpack which
can hold about 7kg of
fertilizer.
To use the device the
operator merely points the
bottom of the tube at the
base of the plant and turns
the movable lever through
o
45 . This aligns the hole in
the Vesconite plate with the
Continued on page 8