Sorry this is so long but I have to share all these details so you can understand my project in the planning. We have 6 acres that has a building site up top where our home will go and down low where our winery is currently being built. Between the two is about 3-1/2 acres on a steep hillside. When dozing the winery site we had to cut in to the hillside and, to prevent building a retaining wall, we cut in three 4' high x 9' deep terraces. Because of this I can no longer use my L4701 tractor on the hillside because it is too steep to travel side to side without risk of rolling and, now, I do not have a way to turn around at the bottom because of the terraces so I cannot travel straight up and down as I have in the past. Because of all this and it would look bada$$, we have decided to terrace the entire hillside before we plant our vineyard. We will instal our trellis' and vines on the outer edge of each trellis which will mean that as I make a pass spraying I will have the vines on the uphill side significantly higher than those on the downhill side. This brings me to my dilemma.
I an not anti herbicides and other spray that people traditionally use in a vineyard but I am extremely opposed to excessive or wasteful spraying. We are surrounded by cherry and apple orchards and I despise seeing them blasting their chemicals high into the air. See Pic 1 There are some attachments to these sprayers to minimize the overspray but they do not address my need for two seperate heights. See pic 2. Also, these traditional trailer sprayers are way to big to make the turns I will have at the ends of my rows. They do make smaller 3 point mounted air blast sprayers but they are expensive and do not address my alternating row heights especially since every time I make a turn the high and low rows will alternate. pic 3 I have also seen some veturi based 3 point sprayers but this is new technology and is off the charts expensive. pic 4
What I am thinking is buy a cheap traditional orchard sprayer like Pic 5 (Which is currently on the local craigslist for $600) and making my own 3 point pto powered fan and spray nozzle assembly. I would mount the liquid tank o the front of the tractor with a 12 volt pump which would give me better balance and more maneuverability and would be easy to accomplish. I would then fab up using galvanized sheet metal and four vent duct system with a high and a low duct on both sides. A simple solenoid valve valve system could easily switch the liquid flow from top left/bottom right to top right/bottom left and I coul leave the air blasting out of all four. Or I could figure out a way to shut off air to the unused vents.
I welcome your thoughts and ideas. This is all in my head at this point so there is room for new thinking.
I an not anti herbicides and other spray that people traditionally use in a vineyard but I am extremely opposed to excessive or wasteful spraying. We are surrounded by cherry and apple orchards and I despise seeing them blasting their chemicals high into the air. See Pic 1 There are some attachments to these sprayers to minimize the overspray but they do not address my need for two seperate heights. See pic 2. Also, these traditional trailer sprayers are way to big to make the turns I will have at the ends of my rows. They do make smaller 3 point mounted air blast sprayers but they are expensive and do not address my alternating row heights especially since every time I make a turn the high and low rows will alternate. pic 3 I have also seen some veturi based 3 point sprayers but this is new technology and is off the charts expensive. pic 4
What I am thinking is buy a cheap traditional orchard sprayer like Pic 5 (Which is currently on the local craigslist for $600) and making my own 3 point pto powered fan and spray nozzle assembly. I would mount the liquid tank o the front of the tractor with a 12 volt pump which would give me better balance and more maneuverability and would be easy to accomplish. I would then fab up using galvanized sheet metal and four vent duct system with a high and a low duct on both sides. A simple solenoid valve valve system could easily switch the liquid flow from top left/bottom right to top right/bottom left and I coul leave the air blasting out of all four. Or I could figure out a way to shut off air to the unused vents.
I welcome your thoughts and ideas. This is all in my head at this point so there is room for new thinking.
