Spraying Isn't Dousing

Earlier this week, on my Foodie Farmer Facebook page, I shared this post of me spraying in my vineyard.

I've never had a post reach this many people. With over over 9,000 people reached and nearly 50 shares,it is obviously something people are interested in and hopefully want to learn more so figured it was worth a blog post for further discussion.

First, when we spray, we don't "douse". The definition of "douse" means to drench or to pour.... which is exactly what we are NOT doing. Second, ALL pesticides (fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides) whether they are organic or synthetic have a "rate per acre" which is the concentration they should be mixed and applied to be effective against a target pest. Third, all pesticides (fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides), whether organic or synthetic have a "carrier". A carrier is the means by which a pesticide is conveyed or transported. Most typically this carrier will be water.

In this picture above, I am towing an air-blast or fan sprayer with a 500 gallon tank. My goal in getting good coverage through the entire canopy of my vineyard is to apply 50 gallons per acre. So I can cover 10 acres with a full tank. I don't have 500 gallons of pesticide in this tank, I have mostly water, almost a gallon of a liquid chemical, and about 50 pounds of 2 dry/powder organic pesticides..

So let's look at this more closely....

In this tank, I used 2 fungicides to protect my vineyard from powdery and downy mildew, amongst other things. I mixed OMRI (organic approved) Sulfur at 2 pounds per acre, OMRI listed Copper at 3 pounds per acre. I also sprayed the synthetic insecticide Intrepid at 12 ounces per acre.

I stink at math so feel free to check my calculations but here is what I mixed:

I will cover 10 acres with this tank so need the right concentration in order for the product to work:

2 lb sulfur (its what we call WDG or wettable dry granular) x 10 acres = 20 pounds

3 lb copper (also granular) x 10 acres = 30 pounds

12 ounces Intrepid (liquid) x 10 acres = 120 ounces (8 ounces shy of 1 gallon)

So the dry products will displace some water because of their density, and of course the 120 ounces displaces at least 120 ounces of water in my tank, so to estimate, I'm adding approximately 495 gallons of water to 5 gallons of product (I did not do the Archimedes calculation, this is my ballpark estimate from having 15 years as a pesticide applicator and then erred on the side of caution and rounded down).

So in dilution i have a full tank of 64,000 ounces of solution to apply across 10 acres.
1 acre is 43,560 square feet, so I have 435,600 square feet to cover with my tank.

Total tank mixture: 64,000/435,600 = 0.146 ounces of solution per square foot is applied.

Of that:

Total Intrepid: 120 ounces/435,600 = .00028 ounces per square foot applied.

Total sulfur: 20 pounds/435,600 = 0.000046 pounds per square foot applied.

Total copper: 30 pounds/435,600 = 0.000069 pounds per square foot applied.

With fungicides in fruits and vegetables, we are spraying to protect the foliage because diseases that impact the health of the leaves will result in fruits and veggies that don't ripen. The leaves function to convert sunlight into carbohydrates to give the plant energy. Without healthy leaves, the plant can't send enough carbs to its "produce" to ripen.

When I spray with the fan-sprayer in the vineyard, I'm using a higher rate per acre than we would use in our corn or soybeans.

The sprayer above is used in our tomatoes, green beans, wheat, corn and soybeans. We are spraying at the 15-20 gallons per acre rate for herbicides or if the crop including our vegetables needs a fungicide, we are spraying at the 30-35 gallon per acre rate.

Its a 750 gallon tank so using 15 gallons per acre, this sprayer can cover 50 acres per tank. This equals 2,178,000 square feet.

750 gallons x 128 ounces in a gallon = 96,000.

96,000 ounces in that spray tank /2,178,000 square feet = 0.04 ounces per square foot.

This is pretty far from "dousing".......

So let's look at these labels a little closer.

Pesticide	Class	OMRI/Synthetic	Signal Word	Re-Entry Interval	LD50 (rat oral)
Sulfur	Fungicide	Organic	Caution	24 hours	2000 mg/kg
Copper Sulfate	Fungicide	Organic	Danger	48 hours	30 mg/kg
Intrepid	Insecticide	Synthetic	Caution	4 hours	5000 mg/kg
Glyphosate	Herbicide	Synthetic	Caution	12 hours	5100 mg/kg

The signal word is indicative of acute toxicity to the person who is mixing the product.

The re-entry interval is the time between application and when someone can go into that field to work without have to wear protective equipment.

The LD50 is a specific measure of acute toxicity by some means of ingestion - oral, inhalation or dermal absorption.

Make no mistake, these all are pesticides. Whether a product is organic or synthetic is irrelevant. Both are toxic and how it is derived does not necessarily make one safer than another. Pesticides are by definition toxic to something, they have to be or they would not be pesticides. The "cide" part of the compound word "pesticide" is derived from the Latin word meaning "to kill", so fungi"cide", insecti"cide" and herbi"cide" are all by definition toxic to some class of pest. That does not mean that they are universally toxic to everything. Not all insecticides kill every bug, not all herbicides kill every weed. Some are targeted, some are broad spectrum. Don't make assumptions about what we are using without asking or you might be wrong.

And be careful what you are doing yourself. According to the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service: "Homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops, and they spend more per acre, on average, to maintain their lawns than farmers spend per agricultural acre." More often than not, homeowners are not wearing the mandatory protective equipment that is specified on every pesticide label, exposing themselves and others unnecessarily. Homeowners are more likely to "douse" because you may spray until the liquid drips off the plant. Exactly what we farmers don't do....

Part II: Spraying not dousing

I posted this blog this morning. This afternoon, I was back in the vineyard with my weed sprayer. I control the weeds under the vines to reduce the competition for nutrients and moisture. My sprayer has 2 nozzles, one on each side of the row, so I am doing what we call "band" spraying, a 4 foot strip, 2 feet on each side of the row, not spraying the entire vineyard floor.

I happen to have a paper towel in the cab of my tractor so I put it on the ground.

Unsprayed paper towel

Sprayed paper towel below my nozzle.

You can see my single nozzle above the paper towel. 

Because this is spraying and not dousing, I do not need to soak the paper towel. I drove the same speed past the paper towel as i would had I been spraying weeds. If you look closely, you will see that it is orange speckled. above. Below is a closer up pic.

A closer look at what a spray pattern looks like, it is not doused.

This is it. Those orange speckles are all the 6 inch by 12 inch paper towel received as I sprayed over it. The plants do not get "doused". There is no dripping off of chemical solution. They do not need to be soaked in herbicide to achieve good weed control. There is no saturation. There is no dousing.

"Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See.."

Anyone else remember the lyrics to the title I gave this blog? It is a song I learned in Sunday School a long time ago, but is apropos to today's blog- deceptive or misleading images of food and agriculture found on social media.  I have been totally amused looking at internet images these days, some on Facebook but mostly on Twitter. It amazing the kind of response people give to images without considering if they are truthful or accurate. And there are 3 camps - folks who just think this is amusing,  folks who honestly believe the fake images they see, and skeptics posting fake images to push an agenda. Here are some of my recent favorites:

 "Organic" Water?

So what's wrong with this picture? See the USDA Organic seal in the lower right corner? Water cannot legally be labeled organic. The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) does not allow water to be certified as organic so the use of the label in this picture is a fraud. If you think about it, things that are literally defined as "organic" must contain carbon. Water has 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen molecule, ... no carbon! If you see water labeled as organic in a store, it is false advertising. If you see it on the internet, its probably a fake.

Red Onion?

What could possibly be wrong with this picture? It's not the picture, its the content of the article that goes with it...It advises that placing cut onions in bowls around the house will result in the onion absorbing viruses and no one will get the flu.The claim is that onions are a magnet for viruses. Then the article accuses onions as being a huge culprit toward food poisoning.  It continues on to say that day old cut onions are poisonous and should not be consumed. Assuming you practice good, general food safety in your kitchen, there is nothing unsafe about using day-old or previously cut onions.

Pesticides?

So what's wrong with this picture, I mean if he has to wear a mask, it can't be good right? The problem with this picture is that we have NO idea what it is he is spraying. He could be spraying copper sulfate which is an approved organic fungicide used to treat downy mildew and leaf spot in strawberries AND which requires the use of the respirator.  The copper sulfate label does instruct the applicator on what personal protective equipment (PPE) they must wear regardless of whether the pesticide is organic or synthetic. This label requires the applicator to wear a respirator. Labels are the law. The applicator does not want to breathe this stuff in, even if it is OMRI approved. The risk to the consumer eating the strawberries is negligible as growers follow strict harvest rules. If this is copper sulfate, then harvest can take place after 24 hours. Let's be clear, organic is not pesticide free. There are over 2,500 pesticides approved for use in organic agriculture. Organic pesticides are also toxic, which is why they are pesticides to begin with! Its the dose that makes the poison, not whether something is organic or synthetic.  Regardless of what type of pesticide he is using, he is protecting himself as he should. Bottom line is, we have NO idea what it is he is spraying but we assume the worst of course. When I first saw this image on twitter, it had "#pesticides #gmo" with it. That would lead you to believe that the strawberries are GMO right? Wrong! There are no genetically modified strawberries on the market so again, we're lead to believe something that is entirely unfounded.

KFC Genetically Engineered Chickens?

This is a good one! Why did Kentucky Fried Chicken change their name to KFC? Here is the internet answer! "KFC does not use real chickens. They actually use genetically manipulated organisms. These so called "chickens" are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs. There is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet." Seriously? Wow, someone has too much time on their hands to come up with that explanation! For the record, there are no genetically engineered chickens in our food supply.

On a different website, I found this claim: "“Chicken are GENETICALLY MODIFIED with hormones, carcinogens, GMOs, corn pills, arsenic and drugs so they become LARGER FASTER and as a result they often CRIPPLE under their own weights." Chickens do not become "genetically modified" by eating anything. Genetic modification is a scientific process requiring transfer of specific genes from DNA. It does not happen by eating.  Furthermore, it is illegal to use hormones in poultry production. I'm not even sure what a "corn pill' is. Arsenic has been used in chicken feed as it is an effective treatment for coccidiosis, an intestinal parasitic disease the infects the gut of chickens.  According to the FDA, organic arsenic, the type used in chicken feed is not a carcinogen. The bottomline is, none of this statement is entirely accurate and is very misleading and yet it is shared on social media as "truth" to promote an agenda.

McDonald's Baby Food?

This image would make you think that A) McDonald's is now serving baby food, or B) Gerber is now producing McDonald's flavored baby food. Can anyone say photoshop?

Often times, these images are shared on social media as a joke, a way to get a good laugh out of something ridiculous or silly. But often, I see the messenger promoting these images as "truth", with people or groups tagging and sharing these images who have an agenda to promote.  So when you are looking and sharing pictures on the internet, pause a few minutes and think about what the image is portraying and what, if any, FACTS you know about the image. Apply some common sense. Do a bit of research. See if you can find the original source of the image or story and what kind of validity they may or may not have.

Perpetuating falsehoods does nobody any favors. Making assumptions about stories or images is nothing more than gossip. Harmless fun is one thing. A misleading campaign is another. So be careful little eyes what you see and then share on social media.