1. COMPATIBILITY AGENT
If you’re going to be mixing just about anything at all in your spray tank, you need to have a couple jugs of compatibility agent on hand. You never know when mixing problems will occur, and it doesn’t cost much at all to add some CONVERT into the tank before there’s a problem.  Cleaning out plugged screens, nozzles, or even worse is no fun and very costly.

2. WATER TREATMENT
Hard water ions, chlorine, and high pH can dramatically decrease the performance of everything you spray. For just a few cents per acre, WATER-RITE can lower your water pH to the ideal 5.5 to 6 range as well as eliminate hard water ions that tie up your active ingredients.  BIO-PREP eliminates chlorine (for just a few cents per acre) that kills the beneficial microbes and inoculants you are paying good money to apply.

3. NATURALS
Millions of acres are now receiving beneficial microbe applications in-furrow, on-seed, or foliar. It doesn’t cost much, and the return on investment is often 5:1 or even better.  On our farm we use several products from this category, such as MICRO-CYCLE for around $6/acre to help with nutrient availability. (Read MORE: What is Micro-Cycle and where does it fit?)

4. HOME INSECT CONTROL
Insects around your yard or in your home can take the fun out of summer. Stop them with an inexpensive, safe, and effective treatment.  The product I use at home is TEMPO.  If you have grubs, MERIT or another generic imidacloprid product can be very effective.

5. TANK CLEANER
This is one of those things that simply must be done right away after spraying. We use ERASE to avoid spray tank gunk and contamination.

6. PASTURE AND NON-CROP SPRAY
Controlling weeds is a key to having a fun and stress-free summer. Don’t forget to pick this up now so when there’s a chance to cross this application off your list you can do it right away.