RESEARCH & EVENTS
September spray day draws a big crowd
Horticulture spraying specialist Don Thorp shares his tips for measuring spray coverage with growers at an ABA spray day in September .
“ YOU can ’ t manage what you don ’ t measure ,” was the key message from Don Thorp , a horticulture spraying specialist who spoke at a spray day at the Almond Centre of Excellence in September . “ If you ’ ve got some way of measuring your coverage you can make some informed decisions ,” he said . Mr Thorp said while most growers are pretty good at understanding what they are spraying and why , he often finds they ’ ve never been taught to evaluate their spray coverage or maintain their machinery . “ There ’ s lots of little things they can improve on ,” he said . “ Most people don ’ t know how long nozzles last and leave them in for too long .” As a rule of thumb Mr Thorp said if you are using wettable powder with ceramic nozzles they ’ ll last for about 500 hours . He said sprayer clean-out is another important process that is often overlooked and it should be happening once or twice per season . Mr Thorp from Hortspray and
Feeback from spray day participants :
“ I will evaluate spray coverage on a more regular basis .”
“ Ensure all sprayers have a regular maintenance plan and go through and ensure each sprayer is getting effective coverage .”
Nick Hall from Syngenta gave presentations and ran hands-on demonstrations at the event , which was attended by more than 70 people . “ Most growers and their workers are visual people , so I use a lot of visual cues and that helps people understand it more quickly ,” Mr Thorp said . “ I put tapes on the fan , just to demonstrate where the air is going in relation to the canopy .” Water sensitive paper was placed in a section of the orchard , to demonstrate what the coverage was like at different heights of the tree . “ Data from two years of sprayer testing showed that 48 per cent of the time , nozzle set up needed adjusting ,” Mr Thorp said . Two different sprayers were used in the orchard , so their effectiveness could be compared . Mr Thorp said getting good control of pests and diseases is important for a number of reasons . “ If your coverage is poor you ’ ll get a poor outcome and you ’ ll see that in your income ,” he said . “ We also want to protect our chemistry and if we ’ re not getting good coverage we ’ re exposing it to the potential risk of resistance .” Mr Thorp ’ s message to growers at the event was simple . “ Don ’ t be scared to do it , it ’ s not hard ,” he said . Feedback about the ABA spray day was extremely positive , with the event receiving a score of 4.5 out of 5 . Everyone said they would recommend the event to others .
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