Technical “
Set the boom height for nozzle tip to spray target at 50cm - remember to always measure from the nozzle tip, not the boom
retention of spray on the leaf surface - and when you are spraying greens cut at 4mm height, there is precious little target!
With the Contact+ Medallion TL, however, there is the further benefit of activity on disease spores in the thatch, so nothing is wasted if there is some movement of spray down the leaf.
Ensure boom joints are lubricated and moving freely, and that the boom is straight and level across the full width
If you are using a highly systemic fungicide with root uptake, whilst turf is still growing actively in the autumn, for example, then leaf coverage is less important as the fungicide will move around the plant to target disease ingress. Furthermore, the active will be picked up by the root and transported through the growing leaf to give prolonged protection.
New legislation means all mechanical sprayers require regular NSTS testing - but is good practice to avoid costly errors
In practice, for most greens’ applications, an 025 nozzle gives the appropriate balance of water volume, operating pressure and speed. For larger areas, sprayed at higher speed, the 04 may be more applicable to achieve desired work rates. And for high water volume applications, where the intention is to get more spray down to the roots, an 08 nozzle could be used.
The Greencast website and the turf app has output charts for all the XC Nozzle range, to help select the most appropriate settings.
Know your area
Accurate knowledge of the area to be sprayed is vital to calculate the amount of product and water volume required. If you are only selectively treating a few susceptible greens, for example, the individual areas must be known.
Ensure all gauges are easy to read and mechanical switches are kept clean of dust or dirt
Commercial course surveying and mapping services are available, or they can be simply manually calculated with handheld GPS devices. Alternatively, areas can be calculated from Google Earth images and free internet mapping software.
If you redesign or alter greens areas over the winter, don’t forget to adjust the spray records.
Assess risk and opportunity for application timing
A clean water supply for emergency eye or hand wash is great - but it must be filled each time
136 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016
Application timing is crucial to prevent damaging disease attacks and best
protect turf quality - especially over the winter, when the effects of scars can last months before turf can be renovated and recover.
Local knowledge of disease incidence, the inspection of susceptible indicator greens and disease forecasting on the website can all help to optimise application timing, before the damage is done. In most instances, the aim is to treat as close as possible before infection occurs, to give the maximum protection through risk periods.
All fungicides work most effectively applied for proactive protection, before the symptoms of disease have caused damage and stress to turf plants. But, if some visible disease has occurred, some options, such as Instrata, do give greater kick-back activity to stop further development within the plant, as well as preventing new infection breaking out.
As well as assessing the risk of disease, you also need to balance the opportunities to spray. If you can foresee disease risk in a few days, or you have a tournament that demands the highest quality, but the weather forecast warns you won’t be able to spray, earlier application may be timely.
The website combines diseases risk warnings, with spray window opportunities, to help best time your applications.
Furthermore, using low drift XC Nozzles ensures there is more available spray days and times for treatment, typically three to four more days a month compared to conventional flat fan nozzles.
Fill the sprayer carefully
It goes without saying that any spillages of concentrated chemicals are wasteful and, potentially, environmentally damaging. There are a few useful gadgets that could help minimise the risk. A metal sink and draining board mounted on a firm frame gives a stable platform to accurately measure chemicals into a jug; if you put a clean bucket under the sink plug hole, spillages can be washed down and added into the sprayer with no waste.
Be careful not to drop any pesticide container foil seals, which can contain
Local knowledge of disease incidence, the inspection of susceptible indicator greens and disease forecasting on the Greencast website can all help to optimise application timing, before the damage is done
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