This is a two part post, first questions about managing your equipment;
What do you do with the material while rinsing your spray tank whether it's backpack, 3 pth, or bigger? Does anybody use the same tank for different materials, such as switching from insecticide to herbicide or vice versa? I try to avoid pesticides as much as I can and confess that I've always just used one for materials to spray on my food crops, and another for the one time that I used Roundup about 3 years ago; and never rinsed them afterwards.
Now for a rant;
It's the Roundup sprayer that I'm thinking about using for potato beetles, which are denuding my vines. My el cheapo hand sprayer finally disintegrated so I bought a new one at the salvage/discount store. (AKA Marden's, for anybody familiar with Maine.) When I went to use it though I discovered that it already had liquid residue in it; I filled it and walked down the gravel road sprinkling it out, then dribbled the dregs on a burdock plant. 3 hours later there are spots on the leaves where the droplets landed... and I still need to spray the Spinosad, although it's getting past the point where it matters.
I also wish that I had left what ever the residue was in the sprayer... as I just publicly confessed to spreading whatever it is onto a public road.
What do you do with the material while rinsing your spray tank whether it's backpack, 3 pth, or bigger? Does anybody use the same tank for different materials, such as switching from insecticide to herbicide or vice versa? I try to avoid pesticides as much as I can and confess that I've always just used one for materials to spray on my food crops, and another for the one time that I used Roundup about 3 years ago; and never rinsed them afterwards.
Now for a rant;
It's the Roundup sprayer that I'm thinking about using for potato beetles, which are denuding my vines. My el cheapo hand sprayer finally disintegrated so I bought a new one at the salvage/discount store. (AKA Marden's, for anybody familiar with Maine.) When I went to use it though I discovered that it already had liquid residue in it; I filled it and walked down the gravel road sprinkling it out, then dribbled the dregs on a burdock plant. 3 hours later there are spots on the leaves where the droplets landed... and I still need to spray the Spinosad, although it's getting past the point where it matters.
I also wish that I had left what ever the residue was in the sprayer... as I just publicly confessed to spreading whatever it is onto a public road.