Calibrating Turfgrass Chemical Application Equipment

Bulletin 817-00

Introduction

You’ve been getting complaints about weed or insect control, or there is turf damage on your golf course or a customer’s lawn. Your actual pesticide material usage doesn’t match the total that should have been used for all the applications you and other workers have made. What can you do to get things back on track?

Chances are your equipment needs fine-tuning, or calibration. This Extension publication discusses:

• The importance of calibration.
• The need for frequent calibration checks to ensure proper application.
• The types of application equipment and their use.
• The factors that influence the rate applied.
• How to calculate the material needed to cover a given area of turf.
• How to troubleshoot for application problems and errors.
• The actual steps in calibrating the type of equipment you use in your operation.

Fig. 1. Turf damage caused by improper chemical application.

Calibration refers to all the operations that ensure the correct amount of pesticide will be applied to the treated area. These operations include:

1. Calculating the amount of product needed.
2. Mixing properly and safely.
3. Adjusting equipment to deliver the desired rate uniformly across the spray swath.
4. Determining effective swath/overlap.
5. Checking accuracy during operation.
6. Detecting and correcting errors.