Roger Pye wrote recently re cleaning sprayers> > All designed to boost the economy, of course. Alternatively, you could > use good old CT made in the oldfashioned way, pour some in the container > for a short time before spraying it out, it will neutralise the > chemicals and clean off any deposits. Clean containers that have held > chemicals similarly, pour some in, shake well, leave for a time, shake > well again, empty out, wash out with plain water.
I am sorry Roger but for me not near good enough - In the event that someone on the list is trying to detox a sprayrig thats been used with the normal run of nasties - DO IT BY THE BOOK - and then some, for sulphony urea residue this means a big dose of pool chlorine through the entire system left to stand then flushed out (the SU chemicals will absorb into the pores of the plastic tank). Any sprayer thats had 24D in it will need every soft hose and rubber gasket replaced with new as well as a proper wash out, you need to dismantle the pump and valve assemblies to dislodge gunk whatever has been used. After you have done all this properly THEN use Roger's idea to get rid of the chlorine and soap that you cleaned with THEN spray out several tanker loads of CT as a soil drench NOW you may be able to go spray foliars on some of your less sensitive plants I am a transitioning farmer still using some of these toxic materials and this above is standard operating procedure at least a couple of times per season and I still would not be brave enough to use my cleaned rig in a vineyard. Apologies to anyone offended by this post but Allan originally posted information on cleaning from the cornell U and it would be financially very tempting for many beginning BD or Organics to buy an old sprayrig and clean it up, you can not smell or see the residue of some of the most persistent and low rate effective herbicides (the sulphony - urea group in particular) If you can scratch up the money for a new sprayer do it then none of this will be relevant. Cheers all, Lloyd Charles > >
