Spraying weeds - reducing chemicals

Winter is the time to spray weeds like Capeweed, Patterson’s Curse and Spiny Emex. This means lots of driving around in circles looking for isolated plants.

Have a look at this clever foam marker Phil has made. The blobs of foam help him keep track of where he has been.

The foam marker is a miniature version of the ones on huge agricultural tractors. A small 12 volt air compressor mixes detergent with water to make blobs of soap bubbles which drop out at regular intervals.

When Phil finds a patch of weeds he turn on the jets on the spray cart and mists them with a broad-leaf herbicide. We hate using herbicide so if there’s only a few plants we hand cut them.

• First published 4 August 2020