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| I used a plastic 55 gallon drum for my mixing vat. I cut the top off and marked the sides at 13, 26, and 40 gallons. I put in 40 gallons of water followed by a sack of AMS. I stirred initially with a 1x4 as a paddle. Later I made an air stirrer. I hooked up 4' or so of 1/2" PVC with a male air hose fitting on top into an elbow so I had directional control of the assembly. On the bottom I put another elbow and a few inches of PVC with a cap. I drilled a small hole in the cap so air pushed out in line with that few inches of PVC. Hooked to my shop air compressor the compressed air stirred the barrel really well. Then before I ran water into my sprayer tank (little sprayer 65 gallon tank) I let a suction connection on the sprayer pump inhale 13 gallons of the AMS solution (about half of saturation so it was not slurry), then with the sprayer pump recirculating ran in the majority of the water from the hydrant with a hose. With about 62 gallons in the tank I let it circulate for ten minutes, then let the suction line suck in 6 quarts of glyphosate, and let that circulate for a while to get it all mixed, then went to the field and sprayed. The thing that made it easy was the air stirrer and using twice the water as AMS would saturate so it easily and rapidly dissolved. The suction port on my custom made sprayer was also handier than pouring the AMS solution and the glyphosate into the sprayer tank. I had a shut off valve at the pump outlet of the sprayer tank, and a hose bib (plastic) tapped into the suction line, so I could hook up a garden hose, close the tank outlet valve and open the hose bib and let the electric pump inhale the appropriate solutions, very little lifting necessary and generally no spills. I controlled application rate with tractor ground speed and sprayer pressure both set manually. When I saw cockle bur or bindweed I slowed the tractor down and kept the pressure up. Worked good.
Gerald J. | |
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How much AMS?
