Buckets and the cost of polyethylene

 

I was using one of these seven gallon water jugs to hold the water I use to mix herbicides.

Nope, I don't just run a hose to fill my sprayers. For one thing, the outside faucets are plumbed into the line before the water softener so the water contains lots of calcium and a bit of dissolved iron.

Since some herbicides combine with calcium and iron, I am throwing money away because the expensive herbicide I bought is busy dancing with Ca++, Fe++ or Fe+++ rather than being available to enter the plant.

The "water" still has some dissolved minerals. I deal with that by adding ammonium sulfate to the water. The sulfate scavenges the ++ minerals by tightly bonding with them. The ammonium sulfate also reduces the pH of the spray mix which for some reason makes the active ingredients pass through the surface of the leaf more quickly.

A secondary advantage of lowering the pH is that it can extend the tank-life of the active ingredient. 

Finally, I add a wetting agent. Many leaves are covered with fine hairs or with a waxy texture that causes water to bead up and run off of them. The wetting agent defeats that and causes the enter surface of the leaf to be exposed to the active ingredients.

I dispense the prepared water into the sprayer, add my active ingredient and the am off to the races. 

Not only do I save money by fiddling with my spray water but I end up spraying far less active ingredient into the environment to achieve the desired end.

I had one of these in the back of my truck. It is a very convenient place to have it when I am spraying.

I went for a drive and another item rolled into it and put a star-burst into its top.

I think I paid $7.99 for the original jug. Do you want to guess what they cost now?

 Do you see the number that was crossed off? $28.00!

Much of that is probably due to the increase in the price of blow-molding grade polyethylene. Prices doubled due to the issues in the Persian Gulf.

The situation with the Persian Gulf is very dynamic and the prices seesaw dramatically. Manufacturers and retailers have to cover their costs but they don't want to lose business by over-price. Consequently, consumers get whiplash trying to catch a sale or bite the bullet and just pay the spot price when we need something. 

I will probably buy another one but will wince when I do it. I hate spending money.

Buckets

I splurged and bought to new 5 gallon buckets for "humping" water in the orchard.

The hand protector is circled in red

The weak link in the buckets are the plastic hand-protectors on the bucket's bail. I suspect UV damage.

I wrapped the hand-protector with tape. Maybe I can increase their life-span.