Question

You need to calibrate your sprayer on a unit-area basis. The unit area is 1,000 square feet, and your test area is 200 square feet. Describe the steps to take your gauge:

1. How much area your sprayer can cover per tankful.
2.How much pesticide to put in the tank.

Answer 1

To calibrate a sprayer, measure how much water it applies to a test area, then calculate the sprayer coverage per tankful and mix the corresponding amount of pesticide based on the coverage and the recommended rate per unit area.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calibrate your sprayer on a unit-area basis, you must first establish how much liquid your sprayer applies over a known area, and then calculate the required concentration of pesticide for the volume of liquid your tank holds.

Steps To Calibrate Your Sprayer:

1. Measure out a test area of 200 square feet.
2. Fill your sprayer with water and spray evenly across the test area, ensuring that you replicate the pace and pattern you would use with the pesticide.
3. Measure the volume of water that was used to spray the test area.
4. Calculate the coverage per tankful. If x gallons of water covered 200 square feet, then you would set up a ratio: (tank volume in gallons / x gallons) = (total area covered / 200 square feet).
5. Because the target unit area is 1,000 square feet, determine the amount of pesticide you need based on the label's recommended rate per 1,000 square feet.
6. Mix the calculated amount of pesticide with the correct volume of water in your tank to achieve the desired concentration.

Example:

If your sprayer uses 1 gallon of water to cover 200 square feet, then a 10-gallon tank will cover 10 times that area, or 2,000 square feet. If the recommended pesticide rate is 2 ounces per 1,000 square feet, you would need 4 ounces of pesticide for a full tank to cover 2,000 square feet.