Boom spray hygiene a must

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As farmers move towards spraying emerged paddocks for weeds and insects, it is extremely important to decontaminate booms thoroughly to avoid herbicide injury to your crop.

The cleaning process takes time and can involve a number of steps depending on the chemical application history of the boom.

The following table is a good guide to keep handy when decontaminating the boom spray.

Pesticide product used Recommended cleaning agent/process
Simazine, Atrazine, Trifluralin, Gylphosate, Gramoxone, Sprayseed, Hoegrass, Verdict, Diuron

Water:

  1. Flush with water several times. A squirt of normal dishwashing detergent will help.

Glean, Logran, Ally

Note: Problems with residues of these SUs (Sulfonylurea) can arise especially if you use a grass herbicide afterwards. The adjuvants in the grass herbicide appear to release the SU’s in hoses, filters and the wall linings of fibre glass tanks.

Bleach/boom spray cleaner:

  1. Drain and flush with water.
  2. Fill tank and add chlorine at 5%; it is best to use boom spray cleaner.  Flush through hoses and agitate for 10 minutes, then drain.
  3. Clean filters and nozzles separately in a bucket with bleach. Flush with water several times.
MCPA, Barrel, Dicamba, Tigrex, Buctril, 2,4D Amine

Ammonia:

  1. Drain and flush with water.
  2. Fill tank and add cloudy ammonia (2%).
  3. Agitate for five minutes and drain.
  4. Flush with water several times.
Lontrel, Broadstrike, Eclipse

Detergent:

  1. Drain and flush with water
  2. Fill tank and add detergent (eg. laundry liquids such as Drive at 1 cup/200L.
  3. Flush through hoses and agitate for 10 minutes, then drain.
  4. Clean filters and nozzles separately in a bucket with detergent.
  5. Flush with water several times.

Remember to read the herbicide label and ask your consultant if you have any questions or concerns.  For users of smart phones or tablets a good resource is the APVMA app. Download this app and you can have all your chemical labels at your fingertips. For the link, click here.

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