Rick, with the Korea, China, Thailand export program has the trunk band spraying being
difficult?
No Steven it hasn't, once we started we developed a trunk spray and decided that was definitely
the way to go.
It is more efficient to spray the trunks so hence I have got this machine that I built.
The cost was pretty low to build the machine, just the parts the steel in the jets, the
hoses, the solenoid and a switch or two, that was about $260.
So it was a great investment it made it much easier to go up and down the rows.
We spray a single side at a time and just loop the rows and it gets the job done.
Please tell us about the technical details about your trunk band sprayer?
Just a few specifications about this sprayer we used four adjustable Sylvan jets that will
either stream or fan, there 750 mm wide and you can notice the angles, we needed approximately
a 45 degree angle which is adjustable to ensure that we get the sides of the trunks when you're
doing a pass.
The machine itself actually slides in an out for row distance, so to make sure that we
can get up rows.
Then we have also used an electric 12 V solenoid to activate the spraying and that enables
us to just spray the trees and not the whole area.
It is also a height adjustable by being mounted on the forklift so we can lift it up or down
to suit all terrain.
So Steve we also have a toggle switch which activates electric solenoid, just a simple
pressure gauge and activation lever for the chemical.
I use an existing herbicide unit to pump the chemical, so overall it's pretty simple structure,
it works.
So what are the important aspects about application?
The important aspects about application Steve are making sure that you totally surround
the trunk, so as we discussed earlier we have our angled jets so that we can get to the
trunk.
With these type trunk sprayers are found in my experience that we travel about 300 to
500 mm away from the trunk and that gives us a good cover all the way around.
So whilst were we have only a single sided machine, we go up one side, it overlaps by
about a quarter on the inside of the trunk and then we come back we do the other side
to overlap.
I found also by experience the lower you trunk spray the better because we don't want to
be contaminating fruit.
Kaolin clay is what you can actually see on the tree and that there; 1) to help with bonding,
but 2) and most importantly if you overspray on low-lying fruit it shows up on the fruit,
it is stuck on the fruit because we also use a synthetic bonding agent.
That alerts the growers the GLO's and the packing houses that we have actually contaminated
low-lying fruit.
So probably as discussed earlier good skirting is essential we all know that as the crop
grows the trees come down, so to make sure you don't contaminate low-lying fruit a good
skirting regime is essential.