Modified backpack sprayers offer simple design, inexpensive pricing, professional nozzle technology, accuracy, and easy, safe filling and cleaning. This makes them an efficient, ideal choice for small, organic, or urban farms, small jobs on larger farms, and for short-season crops, spot problems, work around field impediments (fences, slopes), and work inside high tunnels and greenhouses.
Rutgers NJAES Snyder Research Farm Director John Grande has tested and now shares methods to modify backpack sprayers in ways that increase accuracy and improve usability. Results are explained over seven short videos and many useful handouts and other learning and presentation tools.
The videos are available through Rutgers University and on YouTube below:
Want more information? See the related SARE grants:
- Matching small-farm crop sprayer application technology with OMRI and traditional agricultural products (ENE06-096)
- Organic vegetable production weed control strategies: Integrating precision cultivation,weed biology and OMRI herbicides (ENE09-111)
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.