cleaning out compost tea sprayers

[mrkosar]

i've read you must clean out your sprayers quite a bit. for those using 200 gallon space saver type sprayers daily spraying ct what type of maintenance would i expect to have to do daily, weekly, etc...?

[DeepGreenLawn]

that is a point I have been wandering about. I just cleaned mine, it wasn't hard, used basic ammonia, but it shure took a while to fill it, drain it, fill it, drain it. What a lot of time it took, almost my whole morning.

[mrkosar]

cmon you compost tea brewers!!! give us the goods. what type of maintenance will i be looking forward to?

[treegal1]

every day without exception, you dont clean it and you get poison the next day!!!!!! we fill it with 25 gallons and spray the inside of the tank with the sprayer nozzle, to get it off the sides and top, then we drain it. we have added a 1 inch ball valve and hose where the little drain was(reducer with hose end) that lesco gives you. then its some purple power and spray/ drain, and then some oxyclean or bleach, spray/drain/ rinse. that's the drill every day. you only need to use a little water and cleaning product, 4 gallons?? we re use the purple to wash the trucks down( coastal salt)so that they don't rust. you have to clean it all the hose too!!!! so just use the sprayer to clean with and then the hose gets clean also.

in between tea runs if there is some tea left in the tank or there is going to be a first thing spray of tea we load the nite before and keep the air on it in the tank

[DeepGreenLawn]

this is not the case with Bills 123 is it?

[ICT Bill]

Yes it is, You need to keep your equipment clean, what we call good house keeping practices.
The bacteria builds up and soon you will be spraying pathogens out on the turf. I like sodium percarbonate which is the solid form of hydrogen peroxide. You can mix it to whatever dilution ratio you like

These are oxidizers so take care with eyes and mucus membranes.

Hey TG when you say Purple Power do you mean Potassium Permanganate?

[DeepGreenLawn]

Crap... I guess I should probably clean out my tank again. How often do you HAVE to do this? I still got a good 100 gal that I plan on using today. It was suppose to be used the first day but got caught up doing estimates.

[ICT Bill]

You will notice a bio-film build up and it will turn black with time. We suggest that our product, after mixing, be used within 24 hours. This depends on the temp and so on. If its been hot and the tank in the sun you should try to use it up that day.

It is a typical practice when spraying compost tea that the last couple of properties gets whatever is left and you travel back to the shop with an empty spray rig.

[DeepGreenLawn]

The organic fert that I have mentioned to you before, it won't burn the lawn if I put too much down right?

[treegal1]

bill, its an automotive cleaner,i forget the formula

http://www.clean-rite.com/953CA7EA59D849AD9FF3336CE2E81CF1.asp?ie_key=A2E612532642445A8B4C41CBF68CE315&sc_id=

heres the msds
http://www.clean-rite.com/images/43msd.pdf

it never hits the soil we wash in our spill floor, the waste gets municaply treated??

or you can donate the left over tea to the church/school of your choice, we my have a new gig or 2 from doing this