On Friday, Jeff Vance and I tried putting out Safari in some Christmas trees. We used either a backpack sprayer with a hollow cone nozzle, or a high pressure sprayer. With either sprayer, we were targeting the lower 10 inches of the trunk.
Unfortunately, I think the application was uneven. On some trees, there was good coverage all around the trunk. This is important because only when the entire trunk is encircled with spray will the entire tree get a dose of the chemical. But on other trees, the entire trunk was not completely covered.
Jerry Moody also tried applying Safari to his trees. In his case, he targeted the entire trunk of the tree, treating from both sides, and not just the base. He ended up using more water but he made a more dilute spray to target 1 pound of Safari per acre. And he thought he was getting excellent coverage, as well as moving quickly through the trees.
Next month when Jeff and I spray, I think we will compare different application methods of Safari using a high pressure sprayer -- treating just the bottom 10 inches, treating the entire trunk, and treating all the foliage lightly -- like a balsam twig aphid spray. That way we can find the quickest, easiest method of application. We hope to have this field on the NCCTA summer tour next year in 2012.
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