OK, I'm going to totally disagree with Scott. I have over 50 fruit trees of various kinds, as well as a dozen grape vines, 17 blueberry bushes, currents, gooseberries, kiwis, raspberries, blackberries, etc. Over the years, I've had MANY kinds of sprayers, various smaller tank kinds, including one on wheels, a Solo backpack sprayer, and a large, 50 gallon capacity gasoline powered sprayer with a trailer hitch to tow behind my lawnmower. Guess what, they're all a pain in the rear! Small tank sprayers are too small, heavy to lug, and have to be refilled many times to do all of the plants. The backpack sprayer is great if you're young, strong, and muscular, but it too doesn't have much capacity. The tow-behind one is big, noisy, takes a lot of maintenance, and the hose is perpetually tangled in the wheels, no matter how carefully you try to wind it every time you move the thing from tree to tree. I chucked the whole mess a few years back in favor of a little hose-end sprayer with a dial to adjust the application rates. I bought a couple of rolls of one inch black PVC water line, fittings, etc., and ran spiggots near all of my fruit and orchard areas in the yard. Then, I put hoses out there with quick-connects on the end. I now move quickly and effortlessly between areas and from tree to tree, carrying only my little one quart sized sprayer (which can make up to 64 gallons of spray from one fill of the jar, depending upon application rates of the chemical). The only other chore involved is winding and unwinding the hoses. I put in 15 spiggots in total, so the longest hose I need to have in any one spot is 100 feet, and most are only 50 feet. One of the best parts of this is the fact that it's totally silent, other then the sound of the spray coming out, so I can do it early in the morning when the wind is calm, something I certainly couldn't do with a gasoline powered sprayer towed behind a lawn tractor -- neighbors in my suburban area wouldn't appreciate that at six o'clock on a Sunday morning. I just sprayed yesterday -- did all of my trees in under an hour, and about half of that was spent fixing some hoses that had holes in them or bad fittings (I used about 8 hose menders!). And yes, there probably is one disadvantage in that the droplet size isn't nearly as fine as my tank sprayers can produce, so it does take more spray to compensate. I haven't missed my tank sprayers at all -- they're sitting the shed unwanted and unloved. I do actually use the smaller sprayers for Roundup, since they do give more control than a hose-end sprayer. Haven't used the big, gasoline tow behind sprayer for several years. As far as the brand, I prefer the 'Hudson Valley' hose-end sprayer with adjustable application-rate dial, because it has three spray patterns -- jet, shower, and fan. The Ortho sprayer only has one spray pattern, sort of half way between the shower and fan patterns, so it's not as versatile. Dennis

egghead2004, I'm surprised it took you 4 days to spray your yard?? Before I made my boom sprayer, I used a 5 gal back pack for spraying my yard. My lot is on average, 230ft X 190ft. Similar to you, I dont have a square property. My technique for even coverage was a bit simple but it worked. I used 2 rolls of luminous yellow builders string, 300ft rolls that can be wound up like a fishing pole. I have 6ft markers evenly spaced along at the top and bottom fences of my yard. I attach the string to the bottom of one marker and walk the 230ft to the opposite side of the yard and attach it to the matching post, down low. I repeat this with the second posts alongside. The string lies on the ground and clearly marks the correct area to be sprayed. My yard is not nice n square so I would keep with the parallel lines and when I got to the tapering bits I'd have to pay a bit more attention! My backpack sprayers got a twin head nozzle. I found my optimum spray pattern with the wand was 6ft moving the wand left to right comfortably, so that determined the spacing of my string marker. I would walk in between the string, dead on centre and walk at a set pace along the 230ft. When I got to the end I would move the string on to the next pair of marker posts and repeat. It took a while, but I figured out the correct walking pace, the optimum wand movement and the consistent pumping action of the hand pump. I found actually humming/whistling a marching song was the way to 'enjoy' the spraying experience and keep in sync!! Typically I would have to fill the 5gal sprayer 5-6 times to do my entire yard. I never took more than maybe 2 hours to do the lot? I am wondering is your sprayer giving you trouble? Not misting the liquid perhaps maybe or are you applying too much? Having said all above..... I no longer use the back pack. I found the weight of the 5gal pack to get tedious and no longer enjoyed it. So I made my 30 gallon tank & boom sprayer so I can use the tractor to drive up and down using the tire marks on the grass as my marker... I prefer this option, 30 mins to spray the yard in the comfort of my tractor seat... nice. Nowadays, I use the 5gal for spot spraying. To the original poster... buy a tow along sprayer, its sooooo worth the extra money...

Organics are in no way on par with inorganic fertilizers That's a pretty brash statement and warrants some further clarification to support. How exactly are they not on par? Because organic ferts tend to have lower nutrient loads? It is estimated that synthetic granulated ferts have an efficiency rating of 5-20%, meaning only a fraction of the delivered nutrients are accessed by the plants, the rest is lost to mineralization and leaching. Due to their nature, organic fertilizers tend to be nearly 100% efficient, with pretty much all of the available nutrients accessible by the plants over time. Organic ferts can also contribute significantly to soil health by stimulating and encouraging populations of beneficial microorganisms. As a result, they add to soil structure and their use can lead to looser, better draining soils as well as promoting root development and drought tolerance. Synthetic ferts add nothing to the soil and if used repeatedly can diminish soil health and contribute to compaction. And consider the source - synthetic fertilizers are primarily byproducts of the petrochemical industry, so their carbon footprint is intrinsically higher than that of recycled plant and animal products. The bottom line is the plants DO NOT care where the nutrients come from - a petrochemical plant on the east coast or the reprocessing of the leftovers from the midwest meat processing plant. Both sources will supply the required nutrients in the appropriate form. As will your own compost pile. The choice of using organically-derived or synthetic fertilizers is a very personal one and one that is often based as much on philosophical/emotional grounds as on economy, efficiency or sustainability. Both work and work well, depending on application and specific growing conditions, so the choice is yours.

i apologize if this is wrong forum for this subject. trying to find a small 60 or 100 gallon 3-Point Hitch Tractor Sprayer with 15 to 20 foot break a-way booms and TeeJet nozzles, electric pump that can apply around 30 gallons to the acre. the problem is we have a 500 gallon tow behind sprayer with 60 foot booms that we use for the large feilds. i need some thing for the small feilds like sunflowers, squash,and pumpkins. what sprayer manufacturers do you use? realy not looking to buy from Agri-Supply,Gempler's,and northern tool. any one use Ag-Spray Equipment or Dultmeier?