ROSE GARDEN SPRAY EQUIPMENT
by Roger Bryan
In past articles in Basal Breaks I’ve had a lot to say about chemicals (i.e., insecticides and fungicides) that are effective in controlling rose garden pests. I thought it would be appropriate now to consider the equipment used to apply these chemicals. To facilitate this survey of spray equipment, I’ve partitioned rose gardens into three loosely-defined categories: (1) small gardens with one to ten bushes, (2) medium-sized gardens with ten to 100 bushes, and (3) large gardens with over 100 bushes. For each of these three categories I’ll identify and discuss the most practical and economical spray equipment.
SMALL GARDENS. For gardens with ten or fewer bushes, Ready-to-Use (RTU) Over-the-Counter (OTC) sprays should be considered. For example, Bayer Advanced® garden products include two items suitable for gardeners with strong hands:
3-in-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control RTU, and
Dual Action Rose & Flower Insect Killer RTU
Both these items come in 24 oz. spray bottles (hence, the need for strong hands), which should be just enough chemical to adequately cover about ten mature bushes, one time only. Safer Brand® makes a 3-in-1 Garden Spray (insecticide, fungicide, and miticide) in a 32 oz. spray bottle, plus a number of other garden chemicals in RTU spray bottles. And, Garden Tech® provides Sevin (insecticide) and Daconil (fungicide) in 32 oz. spray bottles, and Sevin in a hose-end spray bottle.
Alternatives to RTU spray bottles are small pump-up sprayers such as the Solo® 1-Liter Hand Pump Sprayer, Model 418-1L (one liter is about 1.1 quarts) for $14.99, or the Hudson® 1 Gallon Professional Sprayer, Model 90181 for $19.99. A really nifty sprayer for the gardener with a few bushes is the Hudson® Porta-Pak Never Pump Sprayer. The Porta-Pak holds 1 gallon of spray, is powered by 4 AA batteries, and is carried like a "fanny-pack" – it weighs 2 lbs. empty and 10 lbs. full. The cost of the Porta-Pak is $32 from the All American General Store – I’ll list some website URLs at the end of this article.
MEDIUM-SIZED GARDENS. When you’re tending up to 100 rose bushes, you’re sometimes talking 20+ gallons of spray – especially when you’re fighting spider mites. RTU spray bottles or 1 gallon (or less) pump sprayers just won’t do the job. One answer is 3, 4, or 5 gallon back-pack hand pump sprayers – here are two examples:
SP Systems® 4 gal., Model No. 01EK484-1, $99.99
Solo® 4 gal., Model No. 425 DLX, $109.99
These sprayers, and a number of others of different capacities, are available from Northern Tool + Equipment. Also available are battery-powered units such as:
Hudson® NeverPump BakPak, 4 gal. Model No. 13854, $99.99
Northern Industrial® 4 gal, Item No. 2747, $129.99
LARGE GARDENS. 100+ rose bushes -- this is serious gardening! Now we need the "big gun" sprayers, so let’s start with a unit available from Rosemania, the SpotShot Battery-Powered Sprayer. The SpotShot is a wheeled, roll-around unit with a 7 gallon tank, a 50 foot spray hose, and a 30 inch spray wand. The cost is $419.95. For the really big jobs there’s the Dramm® Gas-Powered Sprayer with 20 gallon tank and cart. The Dramm sprayer is powered by a ½ horsepower gasoline engine, and comes with a 66 foot hose. The unit is available from Gempler’s for $1,140 – a similar electric-powered unit is available for $975. And for the really, really big garden Gempler’s has available a 50 gallon Nursery Cart roll-around model powered by a 5 horsepower engine for $1,882.
A WORD ABOUT SPRAYER TYPES. There are two basic types of garden sprayers: those that use a piston pump to develop the pressure for spraying, and those that use a diaphragm pump. Most of the back-pack sprayers are available with either type of pump. The piston pumps produce slightly higher pressures which serve to more completely atomize the spray – but the difference in spray coverage is not very significant. However, if one uses powdered or granular chemicals (e.g., Merit, Pentathlon, Compass, TetraSan, etc.) on a regular basis, it would be advisable to select a sprayer with a diaphragm-type pump because the powders/granules, no matter how completely dissolved, eventually will wear-out a piston pump.
SHOPPING THE INTERNET. The product information presented in this article is based on personal experience with garden sprayers, and upon a review of relevant Internet websites discovered using the search engine Google. The following list of website URLs should enable you all to find the best garden sprayer to fill your particular needs.
www.rosemania.com – look under Our Products/Spray Equipment
www.northerntools.com – look under Categories/Sprayers
www.allamericangeneralstore.com – search for Hudson
www.bugpage.com – look under Backpack Sprayers
www.rittenhouse.ca – look under Rittenhouse Sprayers
www.gemplers.com – look under Pest Management/Sprayers
www.systemacc.com – look under Rechargeable or Compression Sprayers
www.solousa.com – look under Chemical Applicators
www.hdhudson.com – browse the website for lots of good sprayer info
www.spsystemsllc.com – follow the links from Our Products
www.bayeradvanced.com – look under Products/Rose and Garden Care
www.gardentech.com – select Sevin or Daconil
www.saferbrand.com -- look under Online Store/Garden Care-Flowers
Safe Spraying! Please don’t forget to read the labels on your spray chemicals.