Field Sprayer Plugged

[Susquatch]

I had to go up north for a week long family emergency that will continue to need attention for quite a while. Maybe years. More on that when the time is right.

I left my field sprayer sitting out in the sun with chemicals in it when we left. Nothing special - just Roundup with some AMS in it.

When I got back, I headed out to get rid of the chemicals by spraying a few weedy areas and field borders. But my sprayer wouldn't work. WTF...... I checked the electrical - no problem found. I checked the pump - again, no problem found. Filters next - clogged up solid....... Some kind of gelatin like substance. I had no idea that AMS would do that. Now I'm wondering what possessed me to add it in the first place!

Cleaned the filters and flushed the system. Still no spray. WTF!

Only thing left is the boom solenoids. AI said they were easy to take apart and clean. So I did. This was different. They were filled with a hard cakey crust that had frozen the valve poppers. So I removed and disassembled them, scraped them fairly clean and then soaked them in ammonia. A day later they look fine.

I reassembled and reinstalled them. Just finished that now.

I only need to decide if I want to do more testing first or put it away for the winter.

Also need to figure out what that crust and gel are.....

 

[1018Machine]

Not surprising. When I was in advertising some of our biggest clients were BASF, Syngenta and so on, and I'd get to speak to the technical guys once in a while. They'd tell about the issues with some of the chems they produced. One time the guy told me about a new spray they made for the east for potato crops. No one thought to test it in the type of equipment used out there and a week after release they had a huge amount of angry customers. Turns out the product gelled like you mention but so bad they could not flush the systems and had to have all the lines and nozzles replaced.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I had to go up north for a week long family emergency that will continue to need attention for quite a while. Maybe years. More on that when the time is right.

I'm sorry to hear this... I hope it all works out

Some kind of gelatin like substance. I had no idea that AMS would do that. Now I'm wondering what possessed me to add it in the first place!

You're on a well are you not?

Do you recall adding ammonium sulfate as a hard water treatment?

When I ran hydroponic system I had issues related to hard water causing my 2 part solutions to settle and clog my emitters after mixing.

 

[Susquatch]

I'm sorry to hear this... I hope it all works out

I'll pm you shortly. I'm just not ready to share with the world yet.

You're on a well are you not?

Do you recall adding ammonium sulfate as a hard water treatment?

When I ran hydroponic system I had issues related to hard water causing my 2 part solutions to settle and clog my emitters after mixing.

No. Believe it or not, we are on treated lake water. We hit the jackpot with that!

Your question jogged my memory. I remember now. I didn't add the AMS for water treatment. I added it to accelerate the roundup take up. It was a rainy day and also late in the day. Roundup is a translocation Herbicide. I needed to get it absorbed before the rain and nightfall neutered it.

To your question, AMS is sometimes used to treat hard water to stop it from neutralizing the glyphosate, but I don't need it for that.

However, lake water does have some minerals in it. So you might be right about the deposits. The gel was the biggest surprise though.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I'll pm you shortly. I'm just not ready to share with the world yet.



No. Believe it or not, we are on treated lake water. We hit the jackpot with that!

Your question jogged my memory. I remember now. I didn't add the AMS for water treatment. I added it to accelerate the roundup take up. It was a rainy day and also late in the day. Roundup is a translocation Herbicide. I needed to get it absorbed before the rain and nightfall neutered it.

To your question, AMS is sometimes used to treat hard water to stop it from neutralizing the glyphosate, but I don't need it for that.

However, lake water does have some minerals in it. So you might be right about the deposits. The gel was the biggest surprise though.

I dont know enough about it to guess.

Lucky on the lake water.

On my hydroponic set up I had to use massive amounts of phosphoric acid to buffer the well water because it had so much calcium. It took me a few tote fills to figure out I was not buffering the water fully.