Handspraying two hectares of new woodland?

[Alan M]

Hi 
I've just planted 2000 broadleaf trees with tubes and stakes over 2 hectares of rank pasture.

I'd like to keep the competitive grass down for the first few years if possible. It would be good to have, say, a 30cm radius of clear ground around each one using roundup or similar. 

Has anyone used a knapsack sprayer on this scale? If so, can you give a view on the amount of time  needed to individually treat 2000 trees. They are randomly scattered so there is no way of using a machine/tractor sprayer.

Many thanks

Alan

 

[openspaceman]

It's a very long time since I did this, so I cannot remember how long it took. I used an arborguard on a CP3 knapsack sprayer, two squirts at right angles to each other for each tree.

 

As you approach the tree you need to avoid dripping chemical from the arborguard onto the crop.

 

[Muddy42]

3 hours ago, Alan M said:

Hi 
I've just planted 2000 broadleaf trees with tubes and stakes over 2 hectares of rank pasture.

I'd like to keep the competitive grass down for the first few years if possible. It would be good to have, say, a 30cm radius of clear ground around each one using roundup or similar. 

Has anyone used a knapsack sprayer on this scale? If so, can you give a view on the amount of time  needed to individually treat 2000 trees. They are randomly scattered so there is no way of using a machine/tractor sprayer.

Many thanks

Alan

 

 

You can get or make a device to protect the tree and direct the spray elsewhere.  Personally I wouldn't bother and just wait and see what happens.  Yes, grass can slow down growth but it generally doesn't grow high enough to cover the guards or kill them like bracken.

 

[tree-fancier123]

never sprayed off that big an area - if someone asked me I would buy a spray shield and some spray marker dye ( blue so I can see whats been sprayed)

 

[slack ma girdle]

2000 trees won't take long, providing that your mixing station can follow you round.

[woody paul]

Will not take long if square plot, I use to do a area of trees 25m wide and 750m long, landed up doing it in section then move truck down with suppliers. 

I always only ever filled knap sack with 10 litres kinder on back if ground is uneven..