Spray Date: July 4
Upped my tank mix to 30 gallons, and got to my spraying early in the day. I've used this tank mix the last three times, and am pleased with the results. It was a good day to spray, and it was followed by nearly a week of noticeably lower humidity. The wet weather over the past few months has provided constant mildew pressure, yet the grape clusters are free of any damage. The bad news is the conditions have been unfavorable for spraying while very favorable to mildew. We have had almost twice the normal rainfall year to date, and it just keeps on coming. Several times the weather prevented me from spraying on schedule, which resulted in damage to the leaf canopy. Some varieties took it harder than others—Viognier suffered the most— while the hybrids pulled through with very little infection. The Sevin has been very effective on the Japanese beetle invasion, which seems to have gone on two weeks longer this year with beetles still present on July 4. Last year, they were gone by the end of June.
The tank mix for 30 gallons was:
During the wash-up, however, the pump failed and I was off to Tractor Supply for a replacement.
This little spray rig has proven itself serviceable over the past three years, and even with a pump failure, I have no complaints. My biggest issue is it takes two passes for each row, spraying one side at a time with the spray gun. It's a workout for my aging arm.
This got me thinking about building a spray rig to fit the three-point hitch on my little John Deere 3032e tractor. With adjustable vertical booms on each side of the tank, and valves that allow me to run each boom independently, I could reduce the number of trips—and time—by half, spraying both sides of each drive aisle simultaneously, and doing it without holding a spray gun.
I drew up two concepts and emailed them to Rozell Sprayers in Tyler, TX. I saw one of their sprayers in a YouTube video, and was impressed with their engineering. I looked them up on the web and found their prices reasonable for my purposes, which means more economical than the air blast sprayers, yet several steps up from what I'm now using.
A followup call with Darren Rozell was promising when he described similar sprayers he had built for other grape and berry growers. He understands my objective, and is working on a quote for me. If I expand the vineyard, I will definitely step up to a more efficient sprayer.
Next spray date will depend on how ripening progresses. It should be July 14 or 15.
Upped my tank mix to 30 gallons, and got to my spraying early in the day. I've used this tank mix the last three times, and am pleased with the results. It was a good day to spray, and it was followed by nearly a week of noticeably lower humidity. The wet weather over the past few months has provided constant mildew pressure, yet the grape clusters are free of any damage. The bad news is the conditions have been unfavorable for spraying while very favorable to mildew. We have had almost twice the normal rainfall year to date, and it just keeps on coming. Several times the weather prevented me from spraying on schedule, which resulted in damage to the leaf canopy. Some varieties took it harder than others—Viognier suffered the most— while the hybrids pulled through with very little infection. The Sevin has been very effective on the Japanese beetle invasion, which seems to have gone on two weeks longer this year with beetles still present on July 4. Last year, they were gone by the end of June.
The tank mix for 30 gallons was:
- Revus Top—60 ml
- Captan—480 ml.
- Rally—4 oz. dry weight
- Agrifos—480 ml.
- Elevate—4 oz.
- Sevin SL—480 ml.
- Latron B—1 fluid oz to the mix as a spreader-sticker.
During the wash-up, however, the pump failed and I was off to Tractor Supply for a replacement.
 |
My current spray rig, a 30-gal. sprayer from
from Tractor Supply, that has served me well
for three years.
|
This got me thinking about building a spray rig to fit the three-point hitch on my little John Deere 3032e tractor. With adjustable vertical booms on each side of the tank, and valves that allow me to run each boom independently, I could reduce the number of trips—and time—by half, spraying both sides of each drive aisle simultaneously, and doing it without holding a spray gun.
I drew up two concepts and emailed them to Rozell Sprayers in Tyler, TX. I saw one of their sprayers in a YouTube video, and was impressed with their engineering. I looked them up on the web and found their prices reasonable for my purposes, which means more economical than the air blast sprayers, yet several steps up from what I'm now using.
A followup call with Darren Rozell was promising when he described similar sprayers he had built for other grape and berry growers. He understands my objective, and is working on a quote for me. If I expand the vineyard, I will definitely step up to a more efficient sprayer.
Next spray date will depend on how ripening progresses. It should be July 14 or 15.
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