Foliar FAS app clogging sprayer

[zachhorn]

Has anyone experienced issues with their sprayer clogging while applying FAS? During both of my previous applications, my sprayer began clogging after ~4K square feet or so. I mix the Fe and NH4+ in an external bucket with warm water and use a paint mixer on the end of my drill. I have a course screen on the top of my sprayer that doesn’t catch any large unresolved particles, so I am not sure what’s going on. Could it be poor quality Fe Sulfate / NH4+ sulfate? The clog on the intake valve in the bottom of my spray can is a mixture of grit with what looks like some kind of fiber... creating a “lint” blockage...

Any advice?

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Common. I have to clean it out more frequently. Not much you can do. The screens with ball checks are even worse.

Have you tried diluting it more?

Definitely clean it out well before winter storage.

[Green]

Since I don't have a paint mixer, I shake everything. Seems to mix well that way.

[zachhorn]

Thanks for the replies. I’m going to put a finer screen over the opening where I pour the solution into the tank after mixing and see if that helps. Also, as it turns out I might have been scraping up the inside of my plastic mixing bucket with the mixer and pouring tiny shreds of plastic particles into my sprayer tank - doh!

[HoosierLawnGnome]

One trick I do is mix it in a separate 5 gallon bucket then pour out all but the last inch of solution into the sprayer even if it looks dissolved. That last inch has the biggest undiluted chunks in it that do the clogging.

[Marinegrunt]

When I mix in a 5 gallon bucket with paint mixer on a drill I start by using 1 gallon of hot water. Will really hot water have an effect on anything or is it okay to do so?

[andy10917]

That is fine - as long as you aren't also adding anything with living creatures (like Serenade or Trichoderma) at the same time. Crazy as it sounds, living creatures don't like being boiled to death.