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Request a spray boom | This is what you should keep in mind

In horticulture spray booms are often used to apply pesticides. With a spray boom you can easily spray large surfaces. Most spray booms are purchased as a complete installation. Such an installation consists of, for example a base, nozzles, hoses and a spraying trolley. All these parts must be tuned with each other to prevent the water pressure from being too low or too high. Still there are a number of things that should be given though when you are going to buy a spray boom. In this article our specialists list these points of attention.

Type of crop 

Firstly the choice of a certain type of spray boom depends on the crop. If you grow vegetables, or mainly ornamentals and pot plants? For ornamentals and the cultivation of pot plants, a horizontal spray boom is used. This is because these crops are sprayed or irrigated from above. 

It is different for vegetable crops. These crops - tomatoes for example - grow upwards. A horizontal spray boom is not suitable for this cultivation, that is why a vertical spray mast is used. This device moves across the pipe rail among the crop (manually or electrically driven). Are there any plants at the end of the track? Then a double vertical spray mast is recommended. With this you can also reach the plants in the corner or at the end of the track.

Length of a spray boom

Subsequently you determine the required length. In case of vertical spray booms you must consider the maximum length of the plants. If the tomato plants become 2.5 meters long, then you need a spray boom of at least the length to be able to spray the plants from top to bottom. If you want to spray certain parts you can do this by opening or closing the lockable nozzles.

In case of horizontal spray booms you take into account the width of the top. Ideally you want to spray as many plants in one go as possible. Spray booms can be custom designed for most top widths(640/800/960cm).

Number of nozzles

There are 4 to 18 nozzle spray booms available on the market. The number of nozzles indicates the length of the spray boom. The longer the spray boom, the more nozzles. In case of horizontal spray booms there is 45 cm of space between each two nozzles. In case of vertical ones this is 35 cm by default. These distances result from the cover of the nozzle. A horizontal spray boom has a spray angle of 110 degrees, while a vertical nozzle has a spray angle of 80 degrees.  

Subsequently it is important to pick the right nozzle. There are different types of nozzles.  

Material spray booms

Spray booms come in two different materials: Stainless steel and aluminum. In contrast to horizontal spray booms, most vertical sprays are only available in stainless steel, because this is a more rigid material than aluminum, resulting in a much more stable spray boom. 

Greenhouse construction

There are different greenhouse constructions for the use of spray booms. A vertical spray boom moves across the pipe rail system, while a horizontal one hangs from the heating pipes in the nursery. These heating pipes are mounted to the greenhouse construction. Since a horizontal spray boom is likely to weigh 250 kilos or more – excluding the weight of the construction and available options - it is important to check in advance how much weight the greenhouse construction can handle. This information can be retrieved from the greenhouse builder.