Washing and flushing your sprayers.

[JDGreen]

Just a note to be aware of a problem I just ran
into. Story goes like this. Last Saturday sprayed
first 1/4 of peas with odyssey. Had 40 gallons left
in sprayer that stayed in till Monday. Reloaded
with odyssey Monday morning and moved to the
next half section. Unfolded and walked along
boom with remote control and flushed a couple
gallons thru each section and checked nozzles.
Started and sprayed field. Went back tonight 4.5
days after spraying and found the first 1/4 mile x
120 feet completely fried.. (3 acres). The culprit
in my opinion is HEAT from last years desiccating.
There has been close to 10,000 acres of
glypho/aim/24D/Reglone put thru the sprayer
since the HEAT was used. The merge adjuvant is
a great tank cleaner if left in the booms for a
couple days. Hope no one else has this happen.
I could have easily flushed 30 gallons thru the
boom prior to starting and problem would have
gone away. Liberty is another fantastic tank
cleaner as well I have found over the years.
Good luck all.

[LEP]

JD most of my residue issues have been after leaving
something in the tank overnight if I don't give enough
agitation to re-suspend.

My guess is that there was a big concentration of
chemical is the first 1/4 mile. If you notice any issues
with next year's crop it was odyssey/merge and not
heat.

[JDGreen]

The burn is to fast for the odyssey .. It looks like
HEAT burn. It is strange for sure.

[BreadWinner]

We did that five years ago, the first bit is really
fried but the disappointing part is that you
probably fried all your peas. They will still flower
but only produce about 1/3 of what they would
have. We had 450 ac lesson. We now put merge
in our sprayer and booms and let it sit a day then
we dump and flush. Finnish won't lift the residue
but merge does, that's why you had a problem. I
feel for your loss, be prepared for the worst.

[ado089]

I always use a soap to clean with. Flush
or the case tank cleaner and run all
rinse water out the booms. Your damage
is pursuit, it does funny things when it
sits or mixes with certain stuff, at one
point knew what it was. It might not
hurt to hit the first load over again
with some ATP Releaf P or Omex P3. It's
a stress receiver I normally use when
spraying get my non CF lentils, no flash
at all. It will help those peas not
showing symptoms to metabolize anything
that is not supposed to be there.

[cottonpicken]

You did 10,000 since the heat was used,and it still
did that?

[northfarmer]

Do you remove the end caps from your boom sections when your flush your sprayer? Years ago we had grief smoking crops with residue after lots of flushing. We have now installed valves at the end of each boom section and when we are flushing with water and ammonia we crack them open to purge the line. You would be suprised how much sub lethal and lethal contamination occurs from very small quanities of chemical residue that can acccumaulate in the end of the boom lines. The tell tale sign this has happened is when you have left your sprayer sit with Lib or roundup for a while and get rolling.

good luck to all this spraying season.

[TOM4CWB]

JD,

It is more likely that Everest type/group 2/or group 4
residues did the damage.

Solution: Flush with Finish and wait for a few hours for
it to cleanse/clean the booms/tank. Like Crusher says
install valves on the end of each section on the inside,
then open and tilt the boom up on the outside of the
boom ends so the rinse water/finish will all run out
through the open valve on the lower end (because you
lifted the outside up and left the middle of the boom
down. Centre is the only section that can't be done this
way.

Some newer Deeres have a air purge system to help
get the air out faster after draining the sections.

Reminds me... need to get more Finish!

Cheers!

[TOM4CWB]

JD,

We are using Viper... no need to add Merge in it as the
28 per AMS is the adjuvant in it instead.

[JDGreen]

Thats right 10,000 acres since last use of express or HEAT. Checked my first clearfield lentil field sprayed this morning. First 1/4 mile x 120' is also screwed but not as bad as the peas. I dont believe the damage is across entire fields, not even concerned to be honest. The unaffected areas are as green and healthy as can be once the booms cleared. Finished peas and sprayer sat for a day, reloaded and checked all nozzles by running few gallons thru each section. I am a thorough sprayer cleaner guy. Fresh water flush, followed by finish flush, remove all endcaps, screens and filters. Flush open ended thru booms with finish. Let sit for an hour and reflush twice with clean water. Its definately the merge pulling whatever is in it somewhere. Have an agrologist looking at it to determine whether its HEAT or express. Funny thing is I have made a commitment to not use any more express or HEAT prior to this happening. Not sure what else u can do other than use merge as your tank cleaner and let it sit in the system for a day and then a total reflush prior to spraying.

[TOM4CWB]

Sundance was the most famous for this! Solution was
to actually add finish while spraying the Sundance on
the last load; till they reformulated.

Cheers!

[JDGreen]

How do we post pics on this relic of a site??

[highwayman]

Ahh, Merge, the best tank cleaner there is. Had
many a problem when running a plastic tank and
booms. Stainless tank and booms and air blow
outs on booms seem to have eliminated the
horror stories. Try not to leave ANY chemical sit
in sprayer for extended period but sometimes
unavoidable.

[Jfreedom]

Where did everybody find all the merge .you can't
beg borrow or steal any in west central sk

[brian99]

Did almost the same thing JD. First time I've tried spraying Authority on corn pre emerge. Last product before that was Reglone last fall. then sprayed Odyssey on alfalfa seed and roasted 25% of the first pass. Triple rinsed the Authority with finish and then precharged the booms to get the water out. What a mess. I feel your pain.