Yesterday I sprayed all 20,000-25,000 sq. ft. of our yard with one of these:



What a PITA .

It's not the actual doing of the job, but the hauling-around of all that hose and trying, in vain, to keep the herbicide off it.

I'm wondering if anybody makes an "affordable" powered sprayer that is carted-around by hand?

I don't know how much I'd be willing to spend, but I bet that number goes up next time I'm faced with doing this job again (*).

(*) Which will likely be in about two weeks.

Thanks, PaPaP226, but a backpack sprayer would probably be as much work as hauling around water hoses.

What I'd like is a liquid sprayer equivalent of a lawn granular fertilizer spreader. Obviously wouldn't be able to power it with the wheels, thus it'd have to be gasoline or battery powered.

I may have to build my own. Shouldn't be hard. Tank, 12VDC pump that won't fry when the flow is turned off, 12VDC battery, on/off switch, hose and wand. Something to which to lash it all. Golf bag cart?

I typically drag the hose and sprayer to the furthest place, away from the water bib, which will be sprayed. As I spray, the hose is "flipped" closer to the bib thereby neither getting wet nor getting herbicide on it

Something like this?

There are options available, but not sure what budget allows. Check Tractor Supply.

I don’t worry about herbicide on hose. The last thing I do is rinse off the hose on the concrete driveway.

I bought a 20 gallon towable one from Tractor Supply. It's got a boom the covers about 5 feet and a wand with a 50 foot hose. I use an ATV to tow it and provide power for the pump. This is the one 20 gallon srayer.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Thanks, PaPaP226, but a backpack sprayer would probably be as much work as hauling around water hoses.

What I'd like is a liquid sprayer equivalent of a lawn granular fertilizer spreader. Obviously wouldn't be able to power it with the wheels, thus it'd have to be gasoline or battery powered.

I may have to build my own. Shouldn't be hard. Tank, 12VDC pump that won't fry when the flow is turned off, 12VDC battery, on/off switch, hose and wand. Something to which to lash it all. Golf bag cart?

You're overthinking this.
The hose-end stuff doesn't do a very good job - you want to use less water so the dope has a chance to stick to what you want it to kill, rather than puddle on the dirt.
A 2 or 3 gallon pump-up sprayer (backpack or lug-a-long) is plenty for 20k ft^2. You can get battery powered if you want to spend extra. Or you can get 1gal pump-up for $10 & just refill.

if you have space on your mower, 9gal 12V spot sprayers are about $50 on sale. pull-behind/boom are about $100-200 & worth it.

I have 'all the above' for my 2 acres & my families yards.

Make sure you pay attention to application rates between hose-end & pressure spray, I assume they are different, probably going to be using different product altogether (and saving money).

For SE MI, I assume you're spraying Bluegrass or Fescue - get some Trimec, 2oz/gallon, apply 2-3 gallon to that 20k ft^2 (confirm that on the label, I'm going by crappy memory on how far a gallon of mix will go, but that's close)

If it goes back to hot & dry in the next 2 weeks, don't waste your time/money/spraydope. Hot & dry isn't time to kill weeds - they need to be actively growing for selective herbicides to work.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
You're overthinking this.
The hose-end stuff doesn't do a very good job - you want to use less water so the dope has a chance to stick to what you want it to kill, rather than puddle on the dirt.

The hose-end sprayer has worked well enough. It's just a PITA to use.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
A 2 or 3 gallon pump-up sprayer (backpack or lug-a-long) is plenty for 20k ft^2. You can get battery powered if you want to spend extra.

I don't want to spend extra, and a battery-powered pump is just more points of failure. If you say a back-pack sprayer will do it, well, ok then

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Or you can get 1gal pump-up for $10 & just refill.

I've got one of those. Even just spot applying with that involved too many refills, so I got a pro-grade Husqvarna 2-gallon lug-around. Turns out lugging two gallons of liquid around gets tiring.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
if you have space on your mower, ...

Nope.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Make sure you pay attention to application rates between hose-end & pressure spray, I assume they are different, ...

The products I'm using all have product/gallon specs, gallons/area, etc. It's just necessary to adjust for the different application methods.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
...probably going to be using different product altogether (and saving money).

Nope. I've found what works on the weeds we have.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
For SE MI, I assume you're spraying Bluegrass or Fescue - get some Trimec, ...

Here's what I'm using, and for what:

• PBI/Gordon SpeedZone (red)
  . Broadleaf
  . Clover
  . Creeping Charlie
  . Prostrate Spurge
  . Purslane
  . Wild Violets
  
• Ortho Weed B Gon
  . Broadleaf
  . Crabgrass
  
• Syngenta Tenacity
  . Bent Grass
  . Nimblewill (Nimbleweed)
  
• Non-Ionic Surficant with all above
  

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
If it goes back to hot & dry in the next 2 weeks, don't waste your time/money/spraydope. Hot & dry isn't time to kill weeds - they need to be actively growing for selective herbicides to work.

We have an in-ground sprinkler system. Besides the turf there are extensive gardens. Everything, incl. weeds, is growing all the time.

Upon reflection: I'm probably not going to treat the entire lawn again. I'm probably just going to spot-treat from here on out.

Just a thought. Do you enjoy doing heavy duty manual labor or just like the way the lawn and gardens look after you have finished?

I used what I had on hand and made a homemade pull behind sprayer. Put my lawn trailer behind my riding lawnmower with a 30 gal trash can mixed with about 15 gal of weedkiller. Put my Honda generator in there along with my electric pump used for draining the inground pool. attached a short length of hose to that with a spray nozzle and away I went.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
all 20,000-25,000 sq. ft.

All 20,000-25,000... Mine is ~160,000.

I use a 15 gallon 12 volt sprayer from TSC for everything, was $59 on sale. Insecticide and roundup / bush killer mostly. No overall broadcast spraying, for that I would probably get a small boom sprayer for my mower.
Usually just put it in the truck bed and clip it to the truck battery and drive it around. I extended the hose to 50 feet so that minimizes the moving around.

I sprayed 45 gallons of tank mixed roundup and bush killer just last week with it between my place and the Daughters house after a few days of rain had stimulated the weeds. Before that I sprayed 15 gallons of insecticide for ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, flies and such on the back yard before our 4th of July family BBQ.

I am contemplating a backpack fogger for some task...

Sounds like TruGreen for you

Back when I was doing commercial landscaping we found an ultra-low volume hand held sprayer that made turf application super easy and fast. It ran on AA batteries and used a rapidly spinning disk to disperse tiny droplets of herbicide over about a 20' swath. I cannot remember the brand, or where we bought it, but it had to be one of the catalog-based landscape/nursery suppliers (this was before there was an Internet). A little bit of web searching finds this that appears to be a similar sprayer.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Just a thought. Do you enjoy doing heavy duty manual labor or just like the way the lawn and gardens look after you have finished?

Both, really.

I came to resent the lawn when I was still employed. I put so much into my job I had little left in my time off. Now that I'm retired and have the time to enjoy it, I enjoy it

The gardens, btw, are 99-44/100% my wife's work. I take care of the lawn.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
all 20,000-25,000 sq. ft.

All 20,000-25,000... Mine is ~160,000.

Yeah, I figured you probably had sizeable property from your prior follow-up

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Sounds like TruGreen for you

Not a chance in hell.

We had TruGreen once. Besides the annoying incessant attempts to up-sell us, their measures weren't terribly effective--no matter how many times they did callbacks. What I've done ever since about this time last season has been way more effective than what they did.

And I'm probably using less herbicides doing it. I apply targeted herbicides. I go to the trouble of identifying weeds, then researching what pros have used to control them effectively.

E.g.: Yesterday's application. Last year I decided to let the clover have its way in the back 25% or so of the lawn for the honeybees. So I don't apply SpeedZone back there. The back half of the back lawn has a crabgrass problem. Most of the rest of the turf does not, but the clover is getting out-of-hand again. So I applied Weed B Gon in that back 50% and SpeedZone everywhere else. For the small amount of crabgrass in the rest of the lawn I'll spot treat with Weed B Gon.

In the process I'll find whatever bent grass escaped from last year, flag those spots, and come back with Tenacity.

speedzone is good stuff. You might try alternating with trimec if some of the perennial stuff hangs around (like clover). Both are 2,4-D based & have similar usage/cautions. Trimec is cheaper, probably slightly less effective too.

My problem with the hose-end method is droplet size & water quantity. It's going to be more vs a fan-tip pressurized sprayer. A droplet that hits dirt is (mostly) ineffective - dirt's already dead & roots don't soak up that much dope before it leaches out and/or gets neutralized.
While I wouldn't do 1/2 acre with a 2-3gal sprayer (backpack or lug-around), it's because I have a 25gal pull-behind w/ 6' boom & a 9gal spot sprayer I keep on my mower. My 2 acres takes about 10 minutes to spray.
For 1/2 acre, a 4 gallon backpack could almost do it in 1 fill & be comparable to hauling around a hose, but it would be a more effective application method. If you're walking it either way, skip areas where you have good grass/no visible weeds. The only reason to broadcast spray is because it's not cost/time/effort effective to spot spray on large areas. Just a a large droplet on the ground is a waste of spray dope, spraying the good grass is a waste of dope too. If you have good, thick grass -and it sounds like you do - spot spray & pre-emergent is probably more effective & easier on the grass.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Back when I was doing commercial landscaping we found an ultra-low volume hand held sprayer that made turf application super easy and fast.

Based on your comments I researched these. There's precious little to be found on ULV sprayers. They appear to be far more popular outside the U.S.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
speedzone is good stuff. You might try alternating with trimec if some of the perennial stuff hangs around (like clover).

I don't think it's hanging around so much as propagating from the neighbours--likely aided by the wildlife.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
For 1/2 acre, a 4 gallon backpack could almost do it in 1 fill & be comparable to hauling around a hose, but it would be a more effective application method. If you're walking it either way, skip areas where you have good grass/no visible weeds.

That's a good point.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Just a a large droplet on the ground is a waste of spray dope, spraying the good grass is a waste of dope too.

True. Though the grass is pretty darn dense, this year. I don't think much is hitting bare ground.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
If you have good, thick grass -and it sounds like you do - spot spray & pre-emergent is probably more effective & easier on the grass.

That is the plan. (I really do not care for herbicides.) I would have done pre-emergent this year, but last year's over-seeding and patching did not go As Planned. So we did more repair and I over-seeded again this spring.

Next year I'll put down a pre-emergent as soon as the soil hits 50°F, which should be about mid-to-late April, then again about this time of the year.

I haven't decided if I'm going to power-rake and over-seed again this season. I'll wait and see how things look come mid-September.

Anyway, I'm thinking maybe this will do the trick for me: Field King 190515 Professionals Battery Powered Backpack Sprayer, 4 gal

I'm liking the idea of not having to be pumping a backpack sprayer the entire time, $170 isn't terribly expensive, and it gets good reviews.