Daily Dicamba Update: Pesky Residues in Spray Booms and Screens
April 18, 2018 Ensuring a properly-stewarded dicamba application in 2018 will be priority number one for applicators working within the new cropping systems.
According to experts at Purdue Extension, who you’ll be hearing from frequently throughout this campaign, tank contamination will “likely play a role in off-target movement of synthetic auxin herbicides, especially dicamba.”
Making sure spray systems are thoroughly cleaned when transitioning a sprayer before and after using dicamba is going to be crucial in preventing injury to susceptible crops. Likely the most efficient manner in which to accomplish this feat is to focus on individual components of the spray system itself.
In a previous email update, we looked at the spray tank and rubber hoses. For this entry we’ll focus on the spray boom itself and the various screens within the spray system that filter unwanted debris from the tank mix:
- Once the spray tank is empty or near empty it’s important to consider that the tank loses the ability to prime and pump out the remaining spray mix out of the boom. Therefore, one should fill the tank with rinse water and reprime the pump to build pressure and force out any unwanted remnants.
- It’s also important to remember that sprayers equipped with forced-air cleanout systems cannot completely remove all residues, so it’s imperative to rinse the system with water after blowing out the booms in the field.
- As far as screens go, Purdue cautions that the presence of herbicide residue lodged screens can result in coverage issues, and pose a real problem for crop damage later. Additionally, remember that there are tiny screens inside each nozzle of a multiple-nozzle turret, and these turrets can often hold herbicide residues even after you rinse the boom. Conscientious applicators should always rotate the turrets during the boom flushing process, visually confirming that rinse water passes through each individual nozzle.
Read more on the label requirements here:
Monsanto: XtendiMax
BASF: Engenia
DowDuPont: FeXapan
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