Best Tank Mixing Secrets Your Farm Should Know

Raise your hand if you’ve ever snotted up a sprayer tank or made cottage cheese. If you haven’t , consider yourself lucky or really knowledgeable , because most of us have made a mess or four when mixing chemistries at some point in our careers. That’s pretty normal considering tank mixing can be really tricky. It is , after all , real-life hard chemistry , and unless pesticides are your passion , you may not know the right order for products to go in the tank. The good news is , I would say 85% of the calls I’ve received about tank mixing issues could have been prevented , and I’m here to share some of the best management practices for tank mixing.

• Water. I cannot encourage you enough to fill your tanks half full before adding any active ingredients into the tank. Ever heard the phrase “dilution is the solution to pollution?" Well , it’s also very often the solution to preventing clogged up tanks , booms , inductor cones , nozzles , etc. If water had a #1 fan , it would be a happy tank mix.
• Time. Allow plenty of time between ingredient additions. Hot-loading concentrates of active ingredients can lead to a big , bad tank mix mess. 
• Remember your WALES and DALES:
  1. Wettable powders (or Dry flowables)
  2. Agitate
  3. Liquids
  4. EC formulations and then
  5. Surfactants
• Mixing order matters.
  1. Water first
  2. Any defoamers/antifoamers
  3. Water conditioners (Your local GreenPoint AG rep can get your water tested if you’re unsure of the hardness)
     • E.g. Class Act Ridion for dicamba or Class Act NG for non-dicamba systems
  4. On-Target™ (This is an exception to the typical WALES and DALES. While On-Target™ is a DRA and therefore a surfactant , it takes the product time to activate and provides the best performance when added after the water conditioner)
  5. The Ws and Ds of WALES and DALES
     • WSP - Water soluble packet
     • WP – Wettable powders
     • DF – Dry Flowables (Authority^®First , Authority^® MTZ)
     • WDG – Water dispersible granule (First Rate^® , Rowel^® , Rowel^®FX , Valor^®SX , Valor^®XLT , Zidua^®)
     • SP – soluble powder
     • DG – dispersible granules (Authority^® MAXX , Authority^® XL , Classic^®)
     • EXT – Extruded Granule (Dimetric^® EXT)
     • WG – Wettable Granule (Optill^® , Sonic^®)
     • Dry Fertilizers
     • SC – suspension concentrates (Prowl^® H₂O , Pursuit^® , Sharpen^®)
  6. Agitate
  7. Liquid flowables and suspensions
     • F/FL – Flowables 
     • Suspension Fertilizers
     • SE – suspo-emulsions
     • SL – soluble liquid (Ascend^®SL , Caparol^® , Direx^® , Extreme^® , Reflex^® , Staple^® , Valor^® EZ , Zidua^® PRO)
     • Max-In^® Boron , Max-In^® Zinc , Max-In^® Sulfur , Max-In^® Cotton NF 
     • XtendiMax^®/Engenia™
  8. Emulsified Concentrates
     • EC – Emulsified Concentrates (Cleanse^®2EC , Framework^® , Cobra® , Section® Three , Select^®Max , Outlook^® , Prowl^®3.3EC)
     • ME – Micro-encapsulated (Warrant^® , Warrant^® Ultra)
  9. Glyphosate (While not a part of the official WALES and DALES , glyphosate is that last pesticide product to go in the tank.) 
  10. Surfactants/Adjuvants
      • HSOC-MSO (Destiny^®HC)
      • HSOC-COC (SuperB^® HC)
      • NIS (Preference^®)
      •  Drift and Deposition (InterLock^® , StrikeLock^™)
  11. Top off with water to fill up the tank.
  12. When in doubt , jar test and read label directions. A jar test can save you time , money and a headache later on.

This article adapted by Sara Smelser , Agronomist. If you have questions regarding tank mixes feel free to reach out at sara.smelser@greenpointag.com