Notaviva Vineyards Blog

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February 15, 2006

Sprayer Ordered!

The second half of the rationale behind getting a new tractor was getting a new sprayer. Doing a little math, and figuring out capacities etc. we decided to order the CIMA Plus 50 165-gallon (pardon me - I meant 600 litre) with 4 lower spray heads and a tower per side.

Plus 50 in action.

Our research and discussions with other growers indicated that most of our spraying will be about 40 gallons per acre, except in times of high disease (fungal) pressure we'll be spraying around 50 gallons per acre. Given the layout of the vineyard with two halves each about 3.125 acres the 165-gallon tank will work out perfectly even in times of higher application rates. Of course it was about $1,500 more than the next smaller model, but given the fact that probably half my sprayings will be evenings after work, it is critical that I can cover the whole front half in one pass, rather than having to go the whole way back to the water-filling station to mix more chemicals.

So it's been an expensive couple of weeks! $42,200 for the new tractor and $9,500 for the new sprayer. I believe this escalates us to "professional viticulturists" instead of "amateur hobbyists" - not that the vineyard and deer fence didn't already...

CIMA Photo Gallery

View the full CIMA catalog (hope you speak Italian...)

Posted by Stephen at February 15, 2006 9:37 AM