I'm a bit of a 'grass nut' and when it comes to weeds, I try to be on top of them. I have a spray bottle on my Zero turns, but for broader areas, I chase the dandelions too much. Last summer, I thought that if I had a sprayer on the front of the zero turn, I could zap weeds when I saw them as I was cutting. Well, a few days over the holidays and I have my first prototype built. Spray heigth is fully adjustable, and an on/off switch is conveniently located on one of the steering handles.
Zero turn sprayer
- Thread starter Bluecon1
- Start date
North Idaho Wolfman
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In my opinion I see a couple flaws with your setup...
You must love ingesting weed killer????
You really should be spraying it and letting it sit on the weeds before you cut them.
" You should wait at least 2 to 3 days (48-72 hours) after applying weed killer before cutting your grass, and ideally, you should have waited 2-3 days before spraying too, to give the weeds plenty of leaf surface for the herbicide to absorb and translocate down to the roots for a complete kill. Always check the product label, as specific instructions can vary, but the goal is to maximize the herbicide's contact time with the weed's foliage before mowing. "
You must love ingesting weed killer????
You really should be spraying it and letting it sit on the weeds before you cut them.
" You should wait at least 2 to 3 days (48-72 hours) after applying weed killer before cutting your grass, and ideally, you should have waited 2-3 days before spraying too, to give the weeds plenty of leaf surface for the herbicide to absorb and translocate down to the roots for a complete kill. Always check the product label, as specific instructions can vary, but the goal is to maximize the herbicide's contact time with the weed's foliage before mowing. "
I kind of thought of all that. The ingesting of the weedkiller isn't as apparent as it seems. The spray bar would be lowered (than shown) and
I can count on my twelve fingers why ingesting the weed killer isn't harmful (just kidding). I did consider that. The spray bar will be lower than shown and won't be spraying in high winds (when even your rear sprayer will haunt you). As far as spraying before cutting, the foliage from a dandelion sits well below the height I cut the grass, I don't think it will outsmart me. Thanks for your feedback.
I agree with NIW. If you spray and immediately cut what you sprayed the weed never has the chance to “ingest” the poison. Without that process the roots never die. They send the nutrients they make back to the part that still exists and the weed continues on.
Did you have Dr. Kevorkian on the design team?
The height of the spray bar is good right now for a spraying pattern. If you lower it enough to avoid spraying yourself it'll need a dozen nozzles for coverage. I've done spraying on an open station tractor and with the nozzles (in the back) high enough to get coverage the mist is difficult to avoid when you're NOT driving into it. To avoid spraying myself it often required spraying in one direction - when driving into the breeze. Around here there may be three hours of dead calm air in a year. With the cabbed tractor I spray unless the breeze is strong enough to affect the application.
The height of the spray bar is good right now for a spraying pattern. If you lower it enough to avoid spraying yourself it'll need a dozen nozzles for coverage. I've done spraying on an open station tractor and with the nozzles (in the back) high enough to get coverage the mist is difficult to avoid when you're NOT driving into it. To avoid spraying myself it often required spraying in one direction - when driving into the breeze. Around here there may be three hours of dead calm air in a year. With the cabbed tractor I spray unless the breeze is strong enough to affect the application.The first SP sprayer I had was a Hagie with a front mount boom. It was nice to see the boom but you always had solution on the machine and windows. Cab filter was always nasty. Got rid of it and I would never have a front mount boom again. Better wash that mower after you use it. Sprayer solution is hard on paint. The paint on the rear of my MX6000 is showing solution wear on it even with running a three point and a pull type sprayer with it and I rinse it off ever time I reload the sprayer. For a short time I ran a rear sprayer boom on my batwing mower. I didn't get the weed control I was looking for. I find it easier to just go back after mowing with the sprayer and do the weed killing then.