Farm Sprayer Cancel The title field is required!

1. Eric Snodgrass

   

   0 posts
   
   7/19/2014 11:07 AM

   I am looking at purchasing a 1993 60 ft farm sprayer. I have been warned about the residue of atrazine in farm sprayers before. Has anyone had issues or used this type of equipment on their Fairways and Roughs. I am in Northeast Ohio and have Poa/ Ryegrass fairways and mostly Poa rough.

   
   
   
   
2. Corey Eastwood

   

   80 posts
   
   7/22/2014 11:07 AM

   Should be easy to send a sample off before buying.

   
   Corey Eastwood CGCS, Stockton Golf & CC, Retired
   
   
3. Mowrey Mark S

   
   7/22/2014 4:07 PM

   Use a commercial tank cleaner and chemical neutralizer through a full tank a couple of times and that should do it. I don't think it would be a problem after that.

   
   
   
   
4. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   7/22/2014 5:07 PM

   Triple rinse even would dilute the residue down enough to not cause damage.

   
   
   
   
5. Eric Snodgrass

   

   0 posts
   
   7/23/2014 9:07 AM

   Thanks everyone for your help. I just want to make sure before i would buy anything.

   
   
   
   
6. Keith Pegg

   

   0 posts
   
   7/23/2014 3:07 PM

   Eric Snodgrass said: I am looking at purchasing a 1993 60 ft farm sprayer. I have been warned about the residue of atrazine in farm sprayers before. Has anyone had issues or used this type of equipment on their Fairways and Roughs. I am in Northeast Ohio and have Poa/ Ryegrass fairways and mostly Poa rough.

   
   
   Eric,
   I did the math some time ago for an inspector and showed him that a triple rinse with a chemical that was near 100% concentrate was parts per maybe billion it was so low I had to do it on the computer because a hand calculator did not have enough digits to show the numbers at the end of the 0's. Be careful and test spray an area first.
   
   Keith
   (Dr. Roy Goss, Washington State " the solution to pollution is dilution")

   
   
   
   
7. Sprague Lucas H

   
   7/24/2014 1:07 PM

   Keith,
   
   I will have to strongly disagree to your quote of Dr. Goss. If the solution to pollution was dilution then why is the gulf glowing red from outerspace? About as diluted as you can get, no?

   
   
   
   
8. Clay Putnam

   

   33 posts
   
   7/24/2014 2:07 PM

   Lucas Sprague said: Keith,
   
   I will have to strongly disagree to your quote of Dr. Goss. If the solution to pollution was dilution then why is the gulf glowing red from outerspace? About as diluted as you can get, no?

   
   
   First I've heard of this. Can you elaborate?

   
   
   
   
9. Peter Bowman

   

   11 posts
   
   7/24/2014 10:07 PM

   Probably the red filters on the cameras.

   
   
   
   
10. Keith Pegg

    

    0 posts
    
    7/27/2014 3:07 PM

    Clay Putnam, CGCS said:

    Lucas Sprague said: Keith,
    
    I will have to strongly disagree to your quote of Dr. Goss. If the solution to pollution was dilution then why is the gulf glowing red from outerspace? About as diluted as you can get, no?

    
    
    First I've heard of this. Can you elaborate?

    
    
    Dr. Goss made that statement in the early 70's at one of the local turf conventions. I really at the time did not agree with it, except for the parts per billion or million that we were talking about. At a certain level almost anything is save (according to the EPA). Again I am not sure about that! So, now after years to reflex I understand that the more you can thin something down the better. And we all I am sure do our part to clean sprayers and chemical equipment to a level that we feel safe. Even so some is going down the drain (parts per billion). Myself I triple rinse every time and spray the rinse onto the same turf that I was treating. I never put down the drain. My wash pit for chemical equipment is set up to hold the water that is placed in a sprayer then put out on the course. As for the Gulf I read that there are 17,000 oil wells (not sure if that is right), sounds like a lot. I do know that they all leak a little to a lot. That being said if that water from the gulf was divided up into all the oceans of the world, (parts per billion) we might not even know it was polluted, however in the almost closed eco system of the gulf we are dealing with parts per million and can see the damage. All the fertilizer and chemicals coming out in the rivers just add insult to injury.
    
    Keith

    
    
    
    
11. Andy Jorgensen

    

    1 posts
    
    7/27/2014 4:07 PM

    Lucas Sprague said: Keith,
    
    I will have to strongly disagree to your quote of Dr. Goss. If the solution to pollution was dilution then why is the gulf glowing red from outerspace? About as diluted as you can get, no?

    
    
    
    Just for grins I Googled "gulf of mexico red outer space photo"......nothing came back. Can you share where you found this information?

    
    
    
    
12. Clay Putnam

    

    33 posts
    
    7/28/2014 7:07 AM

    Keith Pegg said:

    Clay Putnam, CGCS said:

    Lucas Sprague said: Keith,
    
    I will have to strongly disagree to your quote of Dr. Goss. If the solution to pollution was dilution then why is the gulf glowing red from outerspace? About as diluted as you can get, no?

    
    
    First I've heard of this. Can you elaborate?

    
    
    Dr. Goss made that statement in the early 70's at one of the local turf conventions. I really at the time did not agree with it, except for the parts per billion or million that we were talking about. At a certain level almost anything is save (according to the EPA). Again I am not sure about that! So, now after years to reflex I understand that the more you can thin something down the better. And we all I am sure do our part to clean sprayers and chemical equipment to a level that we feel safe. Even so some is going down the drain (parts per billion). Myself I triple rinse every time and spray the rinse onto the same turf that I was treating. I never put down the drain. My wash pit for chemical equipment is set up to hold the water that is placed in a sprayer then put out on the course. As for the Gulf I read that there are 17,000 oil wells (not sure if that is right), sounds like a lot. I do know that they all leak a little to a lot. That being said if that water from the gulf was divided up into all the oceans of the world, (parts per billion) we might not even know it was polluted, however in the almost closed eco system of the gulf we are dealing with parts per million and can see the damage. All the fertilizer and chemicals coming out in the rivers just add insult to injury.
    
    Keith

    
    
    Thanks for the response Keith. I should have been more clear. I was asking Mr. Sprague to elaborate on the glowing red statement. I too googled it and came up with nothing.

    
    
    
    
13. Sprague Lucas H

    
    7/28/2014 8:07 AM

    Sorry for those who have been waiting for me to elaborate on my previous statement, I was out of town for a few days. Anyways, the first I heard of this was in my soils class at Rutgers under Mrs. Karen Plumly. The photo of the Gulf, as I recall, showed the entire Mississippi River and its accumulation of toxic chemicals on its way to the Gulf. The photo was increasingly highlighted with toxic chemicals until it was glowing as far as (I believe) 75 miles from the coast.
    
    I googled it and came back with "The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone". This may not be the same picture shown to me but it still conveys what I was talking about. http://www.wired.com/2009/07/gulfdeadzone/
    
    I understand that we all do what we can to minimize pollution! I also triple rinse after every application. My sole point was that even with all the triple rinsing, pH neutralizers, and anything else you may or may not use, we still pollute. So again, the answer to pollution is not dilution. It only minimizes it. Not trying to step on anyone's toes, just my opinion.

    
    
    
    
14. Andy Jorgensen

    

    1 posts
    
    7/28/2014 8:07 AM

    I would agree with you on that. Even at the most diluted amounts, you are right. It is still pollution. I think what Keith was leaning towards is that the dilution reduces the pollution to the point were it is ineffective. But, if you combine everyone's pollution, its still pollution and has some sort of negative affect on the environment.
    
    As for the gulf...it has been known for years that the "Dead Zone" has multiple contributions. The three main items that are causal in this instance are the flush of fresh water into a saltwater zone coming from the Mississippi river, accumulated silt caused by erosion and runoff increasing turbidity of the water resulting in decreased sunlight penetration to the lower portions of the water, and pollution runoff from both fertilizers, natural wastes and other sources. In this instance, fertilizer runoff is curable via reduction in use, but it would take the cooperation of the entire Mississippi river system to join forces to reduce this. The other two major contributing forces are naturally produced and therefore has been occurring since existence. Only recently have we been able to fully understand the ecosystem in this part of the world and able to pinpoint the major causes.
    
    I have had multiple conversations with environmentalists over the years in regards to fertilizer use and pollution. They agree that our(golf) usage has reduced over the years, and I agree with them that we are still part of the problem. Unfortunately, nature creates it's own Nitrogen, and our reductions would be a drop in the bucket at best to curing the overall Nitrate loading in water sources.

    
    
    
    
15. Clay Putnam

    

    33 posts
    
    7/28/2014 9:07 AM

    I think we would all agree that anything we can do to reduce inputs is not a bad thing. However, anything can be toxic in concentration. The use of terms "toxic chemicals" brings up images of chemical slurries poured daily into the river by the barge full and is an exaggeration of grand proportions, IMO.
    
    By the way, I had an economics professor my second year in college. Almost daily he railed against Microsoft and said it was doomed to failure.