I decide this topic was a bad idea for a forum that's mostly organic - or so I thought! I am more than a little surprised at your response.
So, I'll continue. We use teejet 8001 brass on both the boom and the backpack. Low pressure, big droplets and minimum drift.
We have been using Devrinol preemergent for several years, but I don't like the 12 month rotation restrictions and the need to use a moldboard. I like to follow tomatoes with brassica greens and I can't understand why heading brassicas are okay with Devrinol, but not leafy greens - doesn't make sense. But the label is LAW! Literally!
I'm not going to use Dev this year, and go strictly postemergent with Aim and Arrow(Poast) - the area where the toms are going has been in cowpeas and is infested with redroot pigweed.
I haven't used Sencor, or any Metribuzin. We use a lot of Arrow (Clethodim) postemergent, which works like Poast but better for wild bermuda, which we have a lot of. I'll tank mix the Arrow with the Aim. (Aim costs $192 a quart, BTW :-) ) But I'm spending somebody else's money.
I can calibrate the backpack with walking speed okay, but my problem is hitting individual plants real close to the crop - spot treatment. Presumably, Aim doesn't effect tomato roots like glyphosate does, and acts only on green stems and foliage - but I'm not sure and it
is a burn-down type chemical for broadleafs. Even a brief shot with the trigger puts way too much chemical down that way (not moving, you see, and restricted by a 4" diameter cup shield)). I'm thinking I might need to reduce the concentration from the tank mix to be on the safe side.
A check valve would solve it. Solo USA has one listed in their catalog and I have tried to order a couple of them several times, but they never have it!
Several years ago - I hate to admit this - we killed a whole tomato crop spot treating glyphosate with the backpack! Now we never go anywhere near the toms with glyphosate - not even preemergent. This will be our first experience with the Aim and I'm a little jittery. LOL
Have you tried Sandea? They say it;s fantastic - kills nut grass and you can spray over the top on cucurbits ($395 for a 10 oz bottle). There's a lot of R&D that goes into these highly selective chemicals, though.
Jack
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