All sprayers require calibration. Just add the amount of control product you need to treat the area with enough water to spray uniformly over the area at least twice. (You can add a marker dye to help assure uniform application. The dye breaks down in sunlight and disappears in three or four days.)
Here's how to calibrate your sprayer to treat landscaped areas. Follow these five steps:
1. Find an area where you can easily mark a test plot. Create a test plot with a well-defined area. A good rule of thumb is to use 1,000 square feet.
Test plots may be 10 feet by 100 feet; 5 feet by 200 feet; 20 feet by 50 feet; or any combination to reach your predetermined area.
2. Completely fill the sprayer with water only. (You'll need to know the total capacity of the sprayer.) Add marker dye.
3. While pumping to maintain the selected application pressure, walk at a steady pace and spray the dyed water evenly over the test area. It's a good idea to spray the area twice to assure uniform coverage.
4. After you have sprayed the test area twice, again fill the sprayer up with water, measuring how much it takes. This is the volume of liquid needed to cover the test area.
If you sprayed 1,000 square feet and it took two gallons to refill the sprayer, then you can use 2 gallons of spray mixture for every 1,000 square feet.
5. You can then refer to product labels to determine rates for mixing.
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