This Saturday, as we celebrate Earth Day 2023, we’d like to ask the question: what are you going to do to invest in the planet?
Go to the Earth Day website and they have plenty of ideas. Use renewable energy. Recycle your plastic bottles. Plant a tree. Pick up trash.
We have a suggestion for the world’s farmers who grow tree fruits and nuts, grapes for wine and snacking, and berries that grow on bushes:
Invest in our planet to avoid applying excess chemicals.
How do you know if you’re applying excess chemicals? It’s pretty simple. If you see clouds of chemicals hanging over your orchard or vineyard when you spray, that’s too much. If you see chemicals drifting into the next field or over adjacent waterways, that’s too much. If you see chemical dripping off of leaves and into the ground, that’s too much. If your sprayer operator continues to change on row changeovers or where there’s a space between trees or vines, that’s too much.
Applying too much chemicals increases the risk of excess spray poisoning the soil, leaching into groundwater, infiltrating waterways, and posing health threats to people, birds and animals, and other plant life. Excess spray can also adhere to edible fruits and nuts, which is never a good thing.
Invest in our planet with precision spraying
If you are using an air blast sprayer, the easiest way to do the planet a favor and convert to precision spraying from the continuous spraying normally done. This is easily achieved by installing a Smart Apply Intelligent Spray Control System onto your sprayer. You can add the System to a new or old sprayer – it does not matter! The Smart Apply System is sold as a kit and can be installed on virtually any air blast sprayer. Do this and you will:
- Reduce overall chemical use by an average of 50% and more than 80% with younger trees.
- Reduce chemical run off up to 95%
- Reduce chemical drift up to 87%
- Reduce water use by an average of 50%
Additional earth-friendly benefits with data capture and reporting
Increasingly, growers are being required to provide documentation on chemical usage to processors, wholesales, retailers, export entities, and government regulatory bodies. This is done for sustainability reporting but also to meet mandates on certain chemicals and limit exposure on consumers. One specific example is the European Union has mandated a 50% reduction in chemical use by 2030. Documentation will be required.
This is a potential administrative nightmare for growers. The Smart Apply System offers a practical solution. The system automatically captures critical data on date and time of spraying, chemical usage, savings, and more during each spray event. The information is saved to the Cloud and growers can use this digital documentation for their operations and reporting. This is a simple and accurate way to create a digital footprint on chemical use for an entire season with the ability to drill down to specified section and even individual trees.
Invest in Our Planet with Smart Apply
Earth Day is a day to celebrate our planet, but more importantly, to take action. The Smart Apply Systems empowers you to made an immediate, positive impact on the planet while supporting the need for healthy crop yields to feed the people of the world. We invite you to learn more about the Smart Apply System here. We also have nearly 400 dealer locations around the world. Find one near you here.
