Spraying for Aphids on the Christmas tree farm, what we use, how we apply.

Good morning from the flanigan homestead This is june 22nd uh i’m Early in the morning i’ve got the quad And spreader on the truck but that’s not What i’m starting off the day with i Also have my backpacks blower there i’m Heading out to the tree farm to spray For aphids today uh that’s our first Goal where we try to do this early in The morning when it’s cool and there’s Not much breeze because you don’t want Your chemical drifting off into space so Heading to the i gotta go drop off the Quad and spreader at the church because After i’m done with the Blowing of the for aphids i’m gonna go Fertilize the sports field that we put In First tank full of the day going in We’re off to a little bit slow start I had to go and buy some safety Equipment at par that we lost We had to round up some more Rain gear to cover myself The boys took mine so barry found some Of his and we’re getting ready to go This goes a lot faster I do the work in the field And i carry the backpack and spray it But uh i’ve done this by myself and Mixed it and Uh sprayed it and it’s it takes about Twice as much time as when barry’s just Here he has the next bucket mixed up and

Ready to go so as soon as i get done With that one i drop the pack for just a Second take a break he pours it in Helps me get it back on because these Packs Aren’t light anyway and with three Gallons of uh chemical in it They’re really heavy so it’s nice to Have a second person mixing and we can We’ll probably finish the entire farm in About two hours might i add that Rob’s also great at doing this because He gets a workout this is his personal Workout he loves starting the spring off With running through the christmas tree Farm with with the chemical on his back I love it i don’t have to do any of that Hard work This is true i will lose a lot of water And sweat today Uh one of the nice things is we have a Better kill on the weeds And this year we’re not just spraying The rose we’re spraying the whole thing So in years past i’ve been Tripping over weeds that are out in the Rows sometimes but this time it’s going To be easy to walk through so anyway With this backpack blower we’re going to Get up close and just blow it directly Right into the trees Okay Okay first load done Uh

Getting a slow start as we did today It’s uh the breeze is starting to pick Up a little bit and so i’m going to need To be spraying just going one direction It’s not windy and it’s not going to Take it across the countryside but With the mist blowing up in the air if I’m walking this direction it’s coming Back At me So I’m going to try to do most of my Spraying going that way which is going To add a little effort to this but uh It is what it is All right so i am staring into the sun Here but uh We’re on a couple buckets uh berries uh A couple bucket fulls down a couple of Backpacks sprayers full uh berries Filling it up now so uh just in case You’re wondering we’re using ultar the Reason we like old tour is it’s systemic It’ll treat roof root aphids as well as The aphids up on the foliage it gets Absorbed into the branches and will Fight off aphids on either side we Typically do It says 10 to 12 ounces per acre We’ve done the calibration figured it Out with the buckets It takes We put about three ounces per tank full And then it sprays so

It works really well for us and By the way congratulations to barry he Retired this week from 36 years of Teaching and so he is now a fisherman And a tree farmer and that’s that’s About the gist of it Kind of a tree farmer i’m the tree Farmer It’s hard to get good help these days no But if you haven’t followed our story You know barry and i met teaching over 20 years ago And i had had experience helping my Grandpa on his farm and grown small Scale on my property but i didn’t have Enough property to go and had successful Good trees but didn’t have property and Various like i like to work and i have Property and i said well i don’t have Property but i have knowledge and so Here we are about 20 years later It’s worked out great Hey Okay this is one of those things that I’ve often worried about being a small Farmer if you’re using one piece of Equipment you have one of a piece of Equipment And it breaks down on you what are you Going to do Right now Our pull cord Doesn’t catch anything so we’re going to Get berries running coming back with

Some tools We’re going to try to pull it apart and Get it going if we can’t get this going That’s it for the day so as i said That’s one of the things i’ve worried About is we have one backpack blower and It’s basically run for us for 15 years And It was funny because just this morning i Was thinking about what if this breaks Down in the field It has it’s never done it on us but uh Then we can’t go because we’ve got one Piece of equipment but we’re gonna try To get it going And if not We’ll take it to the shop or take it Home try to work out some more and come Back another day unfortunately we’re Full of chemical right now so if we Don’t get it going we gotta Pour this out store it somewhere But uh if we before we try to start it Up again i’m gonna fill it up with gas And uh if we do get it started I won’t shut it off between loads we’ll Just No breaks in between no more video We’re just gonna roll it if we get it Going again that’s just life on a small Farm Okay here’s a little update on what Happened uh Our full court is just fine but the

Gears in here that are supposed to grip Something broke we’re not exactly sure We’ve been trying to visualize what that Is but We could not Get it to catch it would just it was Just spinning inside here but we found That if we shifted this over just a Little bit It caught enough that we could start it So we got it started and then we did Stood the rest of the field without uh Stopping it just left it idling in Between every load uh i do want to i’ve Shut it down we started cleaning up but I like to rinse it out by putting water In there and blowing out so we’re gonna Go ahead and try to start again and You’ll see what we did so i i just held This on pressed to the side And hopefully We could do her again Farm engineering Stopped at my favorite store in town Woodland sawn cycle they had the part That uh we needed that was stripped out So that we couldn’t uh So that it was just slipping when we Pulled the crank at 3.78 Good as new So So So So

One [Laughter] [Applause] Oh All right so we’re done Uh it was about two hours we would i Might have ended up going a little bit Quicker Overall time today because we had the Breakdown not because we had the Breakdown but because we we couldn’t Take time to stop we had to keep the Motor running so i didn’t have my little Minor breaks in between each time i Filled up So We kept it going but everything’s done In recap We’re doing ultor At 12 to 10 to 12 ounces per acre which For us Well i got a sweaty shirt this is not a Super dark blue shirt this is This is all sweat but anyway uh 10 to 12 ounces per acre we’ve been Using ultor for a number of years Actually that’s i think the only Aphid killer that we’ve been using we Were going to change this year to Something different this is systemic so It treats roof ready root aphids as well As foliar So that’s a nice thing about it but We were going to change just so that the

Aphids don’t build up tolerance But We had ultra left so we wanted to use That up and next year we’ll probably use Something that’s more of a contact Killer spray and kill the aphids that Are on the tree but uh So in our tank that was uh three about Three ounces per tankful at the rate That i’m spraying And it took us a couple hours and we did Have a field breakdown that reminds me Of a story when uh My father-in-law uh does potatoes are Used to do potatoes hundreds of acres of Potatoes every year now he does a Thousand of alfalfa but The bulker which is the the tractor that Comes through and pulls Uh The digger a bit huge tractor pulls the Bulker through the field dragging it Through the field lifting up the Potatoes sorting out the dirt and the Potatoes go down there so this is a Monster tractor wheel about six feet High and we were out there i was helping Harvest potatoes one day and uh The axle brakes The six foot wheel stalls made falls to The ground the tractor Down to the ground and i not being a Mechanic or a welder i’m like we’re done There’s no potatoes this year but uh you

Know my father-in-law has been running His farm for 15 years ever since his dad Died when he was 15 years old and he Knows What he’s doing it was one of those Things he just kind of looked he goes Jason go to the Boneyard there’s an old whatever cut off The last two feet of the axle there rob Just start driving to klamath falls To uh john deere they’ll have something On the counter for you And sure enough i brought back the part Jason brought back some parts every That evening it was up and running the Gears were a little bit loose so they Rubbed a little sand in it And uh away they went so I didn’t have to do anything that Extreme but sometimes when you’re Farming you gotta and it’s time to go You gotta figure out how to do it All right so once again thanks for Joining me on the flanigan homestead Where christmas trees are my business Teaching and cleaning horticulture is my Job and outdoor projects are my passion Check in again later this year to see How our trees are doing thanks for Watching be blessed