Sprayer recommendation

Looking for recommendations for a sprayer for our new cider orchard. We have 4+ acres and 350 trees planted and will likely plant another 150 or so. We have a John Deere 4000 series ....

About 150 of the trees are two and three years old, 30 newly grafted this year and another 170 rootstock planted to be grafted in the field next spring. There are 8 different varieties of cider apples mostly on B118 - a few Antonovka. So far we have not sprayed at all ...

There are a couple of used GoodBoys in the area but I am wondering about the wisdom of buying used.

Any advice greatly appreciated.....will we need booms?


Joanne
G2V Farm
Gaspereau, Nova Scotia
Zone 6A

Which tractor do you have? JD4000x what? How tall do you want the tree to eventually become?

Mike Biltonen, Know Your Roots
Zone 5b in New York

JD 4320 .....the trees will be around 15-16 feet we think?

j.

did you ever go ahead with the sprayer and what were the criteria you weighed up?
I too have been moving up the sprayer gear ladder, only from backpack to 50 gal tph mounted Rittenhouse with diaphram pump for spraying kaolin and suchlike. just started using it this spring, still learning the settings.

Yes we went ahead with the sprayer and bought a Rittenhouse air blast 600 L (runs off the PTO) - since our trees are small we didn't buy the boom yet but did buy a hose and spray handle for doing the small trees until they warrant the air blast.


I guess the criteria were that we be able to spray our 3.5 acres with minimal fill ups, we wanted cab mounted controls, etc. We will add the boom as the trees get bigger .

Ironically we find it easier (now) to use the backpack sprayer to do the 420 trees - but we have the Rittenhouse ready to go


Joanne