Eat, Spray, Love

It’s a beautiful early summer morning and you grab your cup of coffee and head out into the cool morning air to peruse the gardens. The sun is just beginning to warm things, and it’s still early enough to do some harvesting in the vegetable garden or flower garden—the lettuce or snapdragons won’t be wilting by the time you get back to the kitchen. But as you pass by the roses, or was it the tomatoes, a tiny something catches your eye and you stop in your tracks.You carefully bend to get a closer view without spilling your coffee, and the culprit comes into perfect resolution. Tiny insects, just an eighth of an inch long, seem to move each time you move, but their tiny green hourglass bodies fool you with their exquisite camouflage. But you move again. They move again.

The thought process begins. They weren’t there yesterday … or did you miss them? Doesn’t matter. Action has to be taken—and fast. You know that these little critters are easy to control, but if ignored they can wreck the garden. You also know that now, in the cool of the morning, is the time to do something, as any efforts during the heat of the day can have a really bad effect on the plants—and less of an effect on the aphids. The coffee cup gets put down and it’s off to the shed or garage to get the stuff to spray on these tiny, sucking, disease-carrying critters.

You head back to where you keep your garden tools and insecticides. You’re looking for that plastic 1-gallon sprayer that you used last summer but haven’t seen since. Ah, there it is on the floor under some stakes and plastic pots. It’s dusty but seems to be fine.

Now where’s that malathion? Or was it Sevin or spinosad or soap? Damn, what was it he said was fairly safe and organic in that article? Oh, right, it’s that bottle of stuff that has pyrethin in it, yup that’s the stuff. You grab the bottle, the sprayer, then you remember you need something to measure the insecticide with. Somewhere you have a 1-ounce measuring glass, a shot-glass for insecticides. There it is on the shelf with the grass seed. You grab it, the sprayer and the insecticide and head for the hose bib outside the garage.

Wow, the measuring glass seems to have some oily residue. Need to wash it out. And the sprayer is dirty also. Now, how much insecticide do I mix in, with how much water? Where are the damn directions? Ah, here they are right on the bottle label, but you can’t read a thing without your glasses. Back to the house, get the glasses, read the label, “For aphids on XYZ plants use 1 Tbs. per gallon.” What goes in first? You can’t see where the 1-gallon mark is on the sprayer. It’s getting warmer, the sun is getting higher and it’s been a half hour since you put down that cup of coffee.

You figure that if you put the insecticide in first, then add the water, everything will mix well. Measure a tablespoon in the shot-glass, pour it in, get the hose and put the hose end into the sprayer tank and turn the water on. The water jets into the gallon tank and jets out just as quickly, covering you and everything around with a what you hope is just water. The hose goes back in the tank. Where’s the damn 1-gallon mark? You find it, finish filling the tank and turn the water off. Grab the plunger that goes into the tank and turn it to seal the tank. You think it seals well but you’re not sure. You begin to pump the plunger. Five, 10, 15 pumps and you’re not feeling very much resistance as you push down on the plunger. You stop and as you do you hear the faint ssssssssss of air escaping from the sprayer.

The “I should haves” start. I should have cleaned and tested the sprayer weeks ago. I should have filled it with water and tested it weeks ago. You hope against hope and begin pumping that plunger again. And again, and again. Sssssssssssssss and the air continues to leak out and you realize you have one useless sprayer. In the distance you hear the gleeful laughter of the hordes of aphids who know they’ll live yet another day to suck those plant juices, spread those viruses and diseases. You remember being in the big box store more than a year ago seeing this brand new 1-gallon sprayer on the shelf. What a deal for just 20 bucks! What a deal indeed. Sssssssssssss…..

Ever happen to you? Obviously it’s happened to me all too often, so I’m going to share years of sprayer experience with you. I’ll review all the basic types of home garden sprayers, how to shop for one, how to use them, which are the best or worst, how to take care of them and how to be safe with them. Also some tips on nozzles, nozzle patterns and how to replace a trigger. A fan, a cone, perhaps a stream.

The simplest and least expensive home sprayer is one we refer to as a hose end sprayer. It consists of a bottle or small tank and a nozzle and trigger that attach directly on to your garden hose. You put the insecticide, fungicide or fertilizer into the bottle, screw on the top, set the dial to the desired mixing proportion, turn the water on and you’re on your merry way.

Ah, were it only that simple, though. This type of sprayer works on a pressure siphon type of system, where a siphon tube that goes down into the jar sucks up an amount of material and adds it to the water passing through the attached sprayer body. It would be a great system if all insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers were the same viscosity—they are not—and if everyone’s garden hose put out the same water pressure—they do not. And therein lie the problems.

This is a great system in theory, but in practice it’s probably the least reliable and least precise when it comes to mixing the right proportions. The siphon tubes tend to clog, small dirt particles can clog the mixing port and fluctuations in water pressure can affect the mixing proportions. But if you’re on the cheap and you have control of all these factors you may get by. I’ve used them for fertilizers like fish emulsion, kelp and teas but I won’t rely on them for herbicides or insecticides. One summer when I only used fish emulsion fertilizer in my garden I used the Ortho Dial N Spray. I have no idea if it was putting down the right amount of fertilizer, but I followed the proportion directions and I smelled like a fish with some regularity.

If you do decide to use one, always clean it well after use by flushing the siphon tube and mixing port with fresh water. This is easily done by filling the tank with fresh water and letting it flush as if you were spraying—and run at least one tank of water through it. One thing that I do like about this type of sprayer is that most of them allow you to turn the spray nozzle either downward or upward. This allows you to easily spray the tops of foliage as well as the undersides, which can be a challenge with other sprayers.

Next week we move on to compression sprayers, which are the most popular, backpack sprayers and small electric sprayers. Till then, keep growing.