How to read the Applic8r nozzle spray chart

Published 15th March 2023
 

Scott from Hustler HQ Customer Care explains how to read and use the sprayer nozzle chart on the Applic8r boom sprayers.

Transcript

Hi there, it’s Scott here from the Hustler HQ customer care team. Today we’ll be running through a hustler Applic8r nozzle chart

The two factors you have to start off with when reading the nozzle chart are your speed – your paddock will determine what speed you can travel at or spray at. Down the chart you have your different colours that represents your nozzle colours.

Next to that, next column down is your pressure that will be in Bars. Across to the right you have your your coverage so you litres per hectare and right at the top is your kilometres per hour, so the speed you travel.

When looking at the chart, orange is your lower application rate nozzle. As you can see, it starts off at sort of 65 litres per hectare as you go down brown – that’s anyone who’d want to apply a serious amount of chemical to your paddock.

All the way up to five – 500 odd litres per hectare. So we’re going to run through an example here just to make sense. So if your paddock allows you to travel at 10k an hour, which is the third – third column to the right, and the chemical you need to apply has to be applied at 110 litres per hectare. What you’re going to do is run down the 10k an hour column, run down, and you’ll see you get down to 110 litres per hectare.

If you have yellow nozzles fitted to your sprayer, bonus! Because that’s in line with your 4 Bar pressure. So you set your – set your sprayer to 4 Bar, start driving, get to 10k an hour, and you should be applying 110 litres per hectare. It does get tricky though, if your application rate is not displayed in the colour of the nozzle that you have fitted to the sprayer.

In this case, you either got to change the nozzle to whatever whatever kind is suitable, or increase or decrease your pressure or increase or decrease the speed. With that same example of 110 litres per hectare, if you had green nozzles fitted, the scenario changes ever so slightly.

So if you run down the chart, you look in the green area. You’re gonna have to be spraying at around five Bar and slowing your your travel speed down to 8ks an hour to reach 115 or 116 litres per hectare.

When spraying, you want to be spraying between three and four Bar, that’s the most optimum spray pressure. Anything over four Bars, you start to get a very fine mist and the chemical disperses in the wind. Anything below two Bar, the droplets become quite big and you don’t get the correct spray pattern. So for every colour, you want to be in between three and four Bar.

That’s the optimum. A lot of guys think that an auto-rate sprayer you don’t have to worry about the nozzle chart. In reality you really do still. This is a good base of what nozzle color you should be running and what speed rate you should be sitting at. When spraying, the optimum height for your boom is 50 centimetres – or half a metre – above the crop.

That gives you the optimum spray pattern, best contact. So 50 centimetres. With regards to your nozzles, you want to be checking your filters at least weekly. It all depends on the chemical your spraying. Some guys spray liquid fert. Some guys spray a really granular chemical, and this can clog up your filters. In this case check them daily.

That will greatly impact your spray pattern and your pressure throughout the circuit. With regards to spray pattern, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on it. Make sure you’re getting that fan spray pattern. You’re from time to time going to have to replace the nozzles themselves. So if you if you notice your pattern out of shape, it’s probably time for some some new nozzles.

It’s always a good idea to keep a few colours, different varieties or colours of nozzles in your sprayer toolbox. It’ll help you in the long run achieve the optimum application rate.

Thanks for watching. If you have any further Applic8r questions, or you want to have a chat to the customer care team, you can get ahold of us on the website. We have a live chat bar. You can contact your local Hustler dealer or you can contact us through social media.

Thanks for watching. See you next time.