Free Pump - A $525.00 Value - Our Industy's #1 Selling PumpClick to find out how you can become a Premier CustomerChoosing the right sprayer starts with knowing how it will be used. by: Rans Thomas and Justin Bryan The use of herbicides and other water-soluble products to better manage habitat and food plots has exploded onto the deer-hunting scene in recent years. We get countless questions about which products and types of sprayers to use and how to use them. There are many kinds of sprayers on the market, and while the big buzz is all about the newest magic potions available, knowing what type of sprayer you need for your projects is where you should start. With the right sprayer you can really amp up your program. You might use a kill-all herbicide like glyphosate for a burn down of vegetation in food plots before replanting, use selective herbicides to control competing weeds in your food plots, spray forest herbicides to control non-native invasive plants to improve habitat quality or apply liquid plant stimulants and soil amendments.

The list of potential uses goes on and on. Sprayers used for wildlife and land-management work can be separated into three basic types – backpack, ATV/UTV-mounted and tractor-mounted. Delivery systems include a handheld wand, boom and boomless attachments. The wand is simply a point-and-shoot gun primarily used for spot-spray applications, although handheld boom attachments are available for more efficient coverage of larger areas. A boom sprayer has metal frame arms extending out from behind the tank on both sides which support hoses and nozzles that spray a fine mist, covering a swath of ground as you travel. A boomless sprayer generally consists of three powerful nozzles mounted on a metal frame positioned just behind the tank. The nozzles spray down and several feet to the sides in a fan pattern covering a swath of ground. These nozzles do not spray as fine of a mist and are typically better suited for forestry applications. Backpack sprayers hold, on average, 4 to 5 gallons of liquid and can be used to spray small food plots under an acre, spot-spray trouble areas in larger plots or spot-spray in dense wooded areas.

A short boom attachment 3- to 4-ft. wide can be attached to the end of the wand. With a wand boom, you can walk in transect lines through a small food plot for more even coverage. Backpack sprayers are pressurized by the use of a hand pump. You pump with one hand to maintain pressure while spraying with the other hand. Carrying 5 gallons of liquid on your back while walking and spraying can be labor intensive, but these sprayers pack and travel well, are easy to use, are cost efficient and can be a very useful addition to your tool box. ATV-mounted sprayers are a step up from backpack sprayers. The tank can be mounted on the front or back frame or in a UTV bed and is pressurized by a motorized pump running off of a 12-volt battery or the batteries on an ATV. Tow-behind models are also available. They deliver solution through a variety of systems including a spray wand, booms up to 15-ft. wide and boomless. Capacities generally range from 15 to 40 gallons. They are excellent for applying solutions over small- and medium-size food plots, in tight areas or across rugged terrain.

Three-point-hitch mounted tractor sprayers – or large tow-behind sprayers – are the big boys and essential tools when it comes to large-scale food-plot, woodland and rangeland management. Sizes vary for compact and mid-sized tractors from 40- to 150-gallon capacity. backpack glitch borderlands 2Some can be pressurized by 12-volt pumps, but most come with PTO-driven pumps. esv backpack bibleMany come with a spray wand attachment but are mainly intended for use with a boom or boomless system. backpack woordjes lerenBoom arms consist of a 4- to 6-ft. center fixed rail with folding outside rails attached with hinges so they can be folded up for travel. backpack hexxit

Extended boom lengths end-to-end can reach a span of up to 30 ft. A boomless tractor sprayer is especially effective in managing large wooded habitat areas where booms would strike standing trees or shrubs, potentially causing damage. rin kagamine backpackSome units can go boom or boomless by switching out attachments, which might be an important feature for many habitat managers.yamaha h2o backpack Calibrating your sprayer to achieve the right application rate is extremely important – the effectiveness of your herbicide or other application depends on it! backpack best getestThe first step is to determine what agents you will use and read the product label of your selected agent. The product labels will include recommended rates often in ounces or pints per acre to achieve the desired results.

For spot spraying with a wand, you will need to know the product’s recommended dilution rate with water. For spraying a larger area with a wand, you can determine the size of the area in acres, then tank mix enough agent to achieve the recommend rate per acre and evenly dispense all of the solution over the area. To calibrate larger boom and boomless sprayers, you must determine the gallons of water your unit sprays per acre based on flow rate, ground speed and band-width coverage. Read the operating manual for your model to find rate-setting specifications. titled “How to Calibrate a Food Plot Sprayer,” written by Dr. Craig Harper of the University of Tennessee, that is also a valuable step-by-step reference. The flow rate can be changed by adjusting the pressure in pounds per square inch (PSI), and larger sprayers generally come with a PSI gauge and adjustment handle. The nozzle tips used and spacing along the boom can greatly affect flow rate. If your tractor or ATV/UTV does not have a speedometer, you can use one of many free smartphone apps to monitor your speed.

Just search for “speedometer” in the app store. You can also set your tractor gear ranges and throttle to travel at the desired speed using this formula: Distance traveled in feet multiplied by 60, divided by the seconds it took to travel the distance, divided by 88. For example, at 5 mph you will travel 200 feet in 27 seconds. Calibrating boomless sprayers can be a bit trickier, but there are formulas online for this as well. Once you know the gallons of water you are spraying per acre, it is easy to determine how many total ounces or pints of agent to add to the total gallons of water in the tank. For example, if I am putting out 15 gallons per acre, and I need to apply 32 ounces (2 pints) of agent per acre, and I have 100 gallons of water in the tank, then I would add 213 ounces (13.3 pints or 1.66 gallons) of agent to the tank (100/15 = 6.7(x)32 = 213). I also now know I have enough solution to cover 6.7 acres, which comes in handy when planning your trips back to the hose to fill up again.