Best Tank Mixing Secrets Your Farm Should Know

May 02, 2019


Best Tank Mixing Secrets

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

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