Sprayer tank cleaning between crops

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I use one sprayer for everything. Bateman Hi Lo. The problem we hard when we used a separate sprayer for beet was sediment built up in the lines no matter how well you flushed it. It would dry out over winter then flake off during the next season causing bother with the nozzles.
So we just use the Bateman for everything. I normally washout the 2000 litre tank with 2 x 100 litres of plain water. If I’ve used an SU I’ll do that then go back to yard to refill wash tank with another 200 litres, add all clear for the first 100 litre wash leaving it in the lines and system for half an hour or longer, spray out then then wash out again with 100 litres clean water. So it’s only SUs that require a trip back to yard to refill wash tank and pickup the tub of all clear. Make sure to flush the filter during the wash to clear out any partially dissolved particles. Sometimes I’ll take the end nozzles off the lines and blast them out.
Goltix was always bad for that... I used to remove all filters and flush out, then remove nozzles for a final pre winter flush out. Sometimes used to run an Autumn Roundup tank or two to clean deposits out before the final washdown and put antifreeze in
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
I spray it back onto the crop. But not on a weedy part in case it neutralises the chem I’ve applied. I’ve never a weedy patch where I have sprayed it onto the crop and haven’t seen crop damage. On a field scale, a litre of all clear sprayed out on a hundred metres isn’t much to worry about I think, though others might know different.

Logic would suggest that it’s bound to have an effect. I use much less than 1l/ha for some water conditioners and that difference can clearly be seen a half a mile away the following day if there’s a dew.

But, whether the effect has a performance effect is what matters.
 
Goltix was always bad for that... I used to remove all filters and flush out, then remove nozzles for a final pre winter flush out. Sometimes used to run an Autumn Roundup tank or two to clean deposits out before the final washdown and put antifreeze in

Beet sprays were just a plain PITA from beginning to end, some of them required special nozzles, a peculiar low water volume, some of them were WP formulations, and then the fudging things might not work very well. Absolute nightmare.
 
Never take a chance with SUs or glyphosate.
We would always use a tank cleaner, and a non SU mix on a cereal before going onto a broad leaf crop. Liquid fertiliser is a good cleaner as well.

I always told folk to spray their wheat (usually containing Atlantis etc) and then do their barley fungicides last (often no herbicides in that mix early on) which meant the sprayer was cleaned out nicely for another crop.

I've known of 1 error being made with glyphosate before as well. Tiniest amount left in sprayer went into someone's T2.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The problem with a lot of sprayers is they really don’t lend themselves to cleaning out. I fitted tank floor sweep jets in ours after seeing how manganese sludge can rest in dead spots on the bottom of the almost flat bottomed big square tank. Complex systems, lots of valves and pipe work - recipe for disaster IMO, especially if you don’t have an understanding of how it all works. My Berthoud trailed back up sprayer gives me the eeby gerbils when you look at number of valve combinations and need to switch off PTO between every change of valve combination for all the various functions.
 

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
All clear extra only neutrize SU products it's not a tank cleaner
Product info. states the following, although i use it for the purpose which you quote.

All Clear® Extra is a liquid cleaner designed specifically for the removal of pesticide deposits and other debris, including oily substances from tanks, booms, hoses, filters and nozzles.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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