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Show Still More Dope About Much Described 2,4-D Is Given By Agronomist From work which has been done by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station; it appears the amount of water used in applying 2,4-D spray for weed -ontrol is not important, reports Glen T. Baird, Utah State Extension Exten-sion Agronomist. Work on this phase of the use of 2,4-D is continuing, following -ome tests conducted during 1947, ho said. These preliminary prelimin-ary experiments indicate that th, important thing is to get complete, uniform coverage of the vegetation being sprayed, with the proper amounts of 2,4-D. . . . Spraying equipment wnicn Mas been used in the past has been designed to apply from 200 to 300 gallons of spray material -or acre, Mr. Baird said. The irosent trend is toward use of lower volumes of liquid through be use of lower pressure and nozzles designed to discharge smaller amounts of liquid. Where it is practical to use airplanes for spray work, volumes vol-umes as low as thr?e to five gal-'ons gal-'ons per acre have been ind low cost equipment which m be used on the small farms if Utah is now available at very -easonable costs. Even small, three to five gallon hand operated oper-ated knapsack type sprayers can be fitted with short booms handling three or four of the new type nozzles, making it possible to cover a sizeable area rather rapidly with small imounts of water. Application of 200 to 300 gallons gal-lons of water per acre is expensive expen-sive because of the time required in refilling the equipment so often in relation to the acreages covered and because of the expensive ex-pensive equipment needed to handle that amount of material. Use of low volume will overcome both these difficulties, the extension ex-tension agronomist advised. In using nozzles designed follow fol-low volume spraying, special "ap? must be taken to prevent the smaller openings from clogging. This can be done bv using screens properly placed in t.he system and by paying particular par-ticular attention to the kind of water used. Water carrying considerable sediment and small particles of debris should bo avoided. In some localities water may carry -alts which will react with 2.4-D forming insoluble com-rounds. com-rounds. These insoluble particles parti-cles mav form sufficiently to cause nozzle clogging, Mr. Baird warned. If spraying for weed control Is being done in crops, grains, for instance, it may be impossible 'o force the spray down into the crop and onto the weed growth with low pressure. Work on this particular phase of the problem has not been carried long enough for conclusive results re-sults to be available at this time. In the use of either high or 'ow volume the amount of actual ac-tual active 2.4 D applied per acre is important. Careful consideration con-sideration to proper preparations prepara-tions of solutions must be given to assure application of the 1 recommended amounts of chemical. chem-ical. If one pound of actual 2,4-D is to be applied per acre and high volume equipment us-! us-! ing 200 gallons of water per acre is to be used, then one 'pound of 2,4-D should be mixed in 200 gallons of water. ' If newer type equipment re-j re-j quiring only 20 gallons of water ' per acre is used then the one j pound of 2,4-D would be mixed in only 20 gallons of water he advised. |