Mike, you're a true rosarian! More bummed out about the sprayer than the car. Nice to see your priorities are in the right place!

Sorry about all this but what was the sprayer that was stolen?
Lana

You poor guy, I am sooo sorry about your car, and of course your sprayer, car worth more though!! But obviously the sprayer is of dire importance. Did I see that right, 600 plus roses, oh my God, I am definitely a mere novice!

Sorry about what happened Mike. Hopeyou get your vehicle sorted out.............and of course your sprayer. Hopefully insurance will pay!
Cheers,
Pauline

I think I would just hire the services of a crop duster. They probably use the same fungicides to spray the soybeans anyway.

Mike
Pros; I've used the atomist sprayer and was pleased with the coverage and savings on pesticides. It blows a powerful spray, also blowing off diseased leaves. The force of the air breaks the product into a very fine mist and the air turns the leaves over so coverage is complete.
Cons, The tank is small, mine was two gallons but you use way less pesticide. Dragging a long heavy extension cord can be a chore and it often gets caught on the bushes.
I used a small generator pulled in a wagon to power mine. It like using a regular battery operated unit except it was very noisy.
Sorry about your car. I never leave my keys in the car. Today's vehicles don't take that long to warm up so I start up and go! I have heat within one block in my Escape, often by the time I'm pulling out of my driveway.

I can't comment on the sprayer, but you could check local pawn shops to see if someone has tried to sell a sprayer. I once lost a camera from my office in downtown Richmond, VA, and found it 2 weeks later in a pawn shop. Craigslist would be somewhere to check also.

Karl's comments on the Atomist are spot on. It uses a whole lot less spray and covers better. Depending on the design of the rose beds, it may or may not work.
BUT if you go Atomist, you must wear protective gear and a great respirator. The really fine mist not only covers the plant better, it will coat you as well, if there's even a slight wind shift. Smaller particles are more susceptible to even all but imperceptible wind.

We made our own sprayer for much less than it would have cost to buy it and we recharge the riding lawnmower battery that powers it. If you have a shop with a welder, I'll post a link to our old site that has the how to on it.

Tractor supply sells a 15 gallon sprayer for around $100. You could mount it in a small wagon or build a frame on wheels to mount it on.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sprayer at TSC.

We garden on a hill, and the first sprayer DH built was a 20 galloon.
Do you know how much 20gallons of water weights? DH did, but didn't think about how I could handle that weight on wheels, on a hill slope of varying steepness.
Not only was it a bear to pull uphill, when it wanted to go down hill, it did.

We've settled on a nine gallon tank, which can be controlled.
And we mix the fungicides , dilute them slightly, and then finish dilution at the top of the hill.

(We use the 20 gallon monster to move water to the far away gardens when we are planting in them; beats dragging over 0.2 miles of hose.)

Just an FYI water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon so that 20 gallon sprayer Ann's talking about must be a hernia waiting to happen.
I'm fortunate my little battery powered Black & Decker one is still functioning after several years.

Mike, I've also heard good things about atomist. I am so sorry you were victimized like this. My cousin got their car stolen right out of the driveway at Christmas. Good luck with whatever you decide.
PS, I would be more upset over the sprayer too.

Carla

Thanks all,

The car can easily be replaced, and will as soon as the darn check gets here. The sprayer I lost was the 4 gallon battery powered version from Rosemania, which gave me problems constantly. I see Rosemania sells a different model now, so maybe now the problem with the leads detaching from the battery are solved.

Mike
I inherited an Atomist from a local rose society member. I like it but I wouldn't want to use it all the time. As Ann says, the particles are smaller and it is too easy to inhale. If I get alot of damaged leaves, the atomist will blast them off with the spray and that can be a plus at times. For most of my spraying, I have something similar to Karl's link from Tractor Supply. I have mine in a small garden wagon that i can use for other things also. The battery is rechargeable. The price was not too bad.

Dawn

I have a 10 gallon version of the sprayer that Karl linked to. I think I got mine at Fleet& Farm. Eight gallons of spray is about all I would recommend you put in a 10 gal. tank. Anyway eight gallons is heavy enough to pull about.

My sprayer is mounted in a small garden wagon along with a small 12 volt battery.

Lessons I learned, I should have paid up for a better quality wagon that had good wheel bearings.

Also I need a better wand than the one that came with the cheapo sprayer. The supplied wand can make a fairly fine mist , but when it is screwed down to make a fine mist you get a cone that is empty in the middle so it is not easy to avoid wasting some spray when you want to direct it at a single spot.

All things considered, it is a satisfactory sprayer for the money.

Regards,

Charles