Sprayer water.

[farmaholic]

Does anyone use anything to treat their sprayer water?

Large Department of Highways dugout:

Bicarbonate: 188 (not too bad for dims)???
Total hardness: 300 (not too bad)
TDS: 543
pH: 9.25. (YIKES for glyphosate!!!!)

How acidic do you make your water for glyphosate?
HydroChloric Acid is a strong acidifier and probably much cheaper than Ag water conditioners. Can it be used? Is the acidic water hard on spray equipment?

[Klause]

Citric acid. Half a kg per cube

[farmaholic]

Citric acid. Half a kg per cube

I was.hoping you'd chime in. Couldn't I use HCL?
Does citric acid come in a solution? Wouldn't rate depend on water chemistry. Trial and error til the proper ratio was determined. What's the lowest water pH you would use with glyphosate.

[sumdumguy]

We use a fertilizing jug filled with pure vinegar attached to a water hose to lower the ph on peas, cabbages and many other garden veggies. We aren't too particular about amount but I can tell you the results are evident a day or two later and this is the first year we've had success with garden peas. Our water has a ph of 8.3 from the well and we are trying to lower it to 5.5 or so. This is not too relevant to glyphosate, is it Farma? Vinegar is so cheap but citric acid may be cheaper. (I have also used garage floor etching powder and it works too without damaging vegetation.)

[Klause]

I got 4 bags from when a rig got decommissioned that I worked on years ago... jdgreen probably knows what it's worth but it's cheaper and food grade. 0.5 kg per cube takes pH 8 water to 5.5 which is pretty much neutral


Most glyphosates already have water conditioner in the surfactant so you don't wanna go too crazy. Our well water is pH 6.7 so we do nothing to it... however some of the RM wells we pull from are a different story.

[farmaholic]

I got 4 bags from when a rig got decommissioned that I worked on years ago... jdgreen probably knows what it's worth but it's cheaper and food grade. 0.5 kg per cube takes pH 8 water to 5.5 which is pretty much neutral


Most glyphosates already have water conditioner in the surfactant so you don't wanna go too crazy. Our well water is pH 6.7 so we do nothing to it... however some of the RM wells we pull from are a different story.

Klause, I thought a pH of seven was neutral?

[farmaholic]

It would be interesting to check the water before adding the glyphosate, then after, and see if there is a reduction in pH. Guys are just using more glyphosate because it has become economical. How much of it is getting tied up with overly alkaline water? If we were back to a third of a liter rates or half a liter, because of cost, maybe I wouldn't be too happy with the results with this water?

[Klause]

Klause, I thought a pH of seven was neutral?

You're right brain fart here because rain water is 5.5-6

Some gly is really basic like around 3.

[farmaholic]

You're right brain fart here because rain water is 5.5-6

Some gly is really basic like around 3.

Ok...now you must just be trying to **** with my head....

A pH of 3 would be quite acidic.... I don't know the pH of gly but might be able to find it on a MSDS. HCL is under 1.

The LI700 we used with the diquat is about a pH of about 3.6. We took ten liters of our source water testing about 9.25 and added 50 mls of LI700 and it dropped the pH to about 5-5.5! But I was looking for a cheaper alternative than the "expensive "Ag" pH adjusters". And how acidic do you make it. Depending on what we use and how low we should go....I think I know how to figure out how to get there.

[Klause]

No but my phone is screwing with both of us. Hoih.

3 acidic


11 is basic

My phone keeps changing words around.

[farmaholic]

Looked up the pH of some glyphosate products on their MSDS. They were around 4.5-5. So you would think taking the water pH down to that level would be alot better than mixing it with something 9.25, that's quite a spread(pH scale goes from 0 to 14). I would guess some glyphosate would be neutralized(lost), but don't know....

I got quoted about $45 for a bit over 20 liters(23Kg) of hydro chloric acid(HCL 31.45%). With it being so acidic.... supposedly less than a pH of 1... a little would go a long way. Dangerous as hell though---eyes, skin and fumes.

So if 50 mls of LI700 at about pH 3.6 took ten liters of source water(9.25) down to about 5.5 pH.... just think how little of something with a pH of less than one you would need.

How much of the acidic nature of the glyphosate is contributed from the active ingredient and how much from the "carrier"?

9.25 pH might be too much to overcome without loses in active ingredient.

Can anyone definitively answer this?

[tweety]

Holy shit farma, buy some decent water for a nickel an acre. Or a dime maybe.

[Klause]

Have a read farma

[URL="http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nursery-weeds/feature_articles/spray_tank/spray_tank.htm"]http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nursery-weeds/feature_articles/spray_tank/spray_tank.htm[/URL]

[farmaholic]

Holy shit farma, buy some decent water for a nickel an acre. Or a dime maybe.

Lol tweety....alot of untreated water would probably have an issue of some sort.

If I bought the water at the community(the water is R.O. water) I live near it would cost $1.00/25 Imp gallons (113 liters or basically 30 US gallons). At 5 gpa its cost would be about 16.5 cents and at 10 gpa -31 cents....AND ABOVE ALL THEY DON'T WANT ME THERE WITH THE SPRAYER NURSE TANK WITH A CHEM HANDLER AND MAYBE CHEMICAL THAT CLOSE TO THE TREATMENT PLANT....EVEN MORE....I don't want the liability.

For God's sake...just trying to solve a minor water issue....not split atoms. It's not that difficult, just trying to find the best method and how low to take the pH.

[farmaholic]

Your spraying boys , not filling the hot tub !

I want it good enough to mix with whiskey!