Chemical residue can last over the winter and cause crop damage, so you want to give the sprayer a complete pre-season cleaning. Here are the steps:
- Fill the sprayer tank full of water and run the water through the system. Make sure the only place water comes out is through the nozzles.
- While at it, run through a cleaning cycle using a multi-function sprayer cleaner that will raise pH and provide a detergent function. Let the cleaning solution sit in the system for a day or so.
- While the solution sits in the system, check and remove all screens and filters, clearing them of debris. Clean them by hand using a scrub brush and detergent.
- Remove boom ends and flush them.
- With everything back together, run rinsing water through the sprayer and check nozzle flow rates. Check that they’re within 5% of new and of each other by timing and measuring their output. Replace any nozzles that are faulty. If a lot of them are faulty, you may opt to replace the whole lot with new low-drift nozzles.
More…
- Sprayer cleanout is also important between tank mixes
- Sprayer tank cleanout – tips
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- Podcast on Early weed control tips – with Ian Epp and Clark Brenzil