This reads 54F inside and 43F outside
It was pretty cold in the house on Thursday as it rained all day. I got the kitchen cleaned up in the morning and the seedlings fed. My #1 intern wasn’t feeling well, so she didn’t come.
Once I had those things done, I mostly sat in my chair with my heater on top.
Basil
My helper friend arrived at noon and he went to the barn to bring some things to the house.
I got this backpack Solo sprayer for foliar feeding at a tag sale sometime before 2009 for $20. We’ve used it for feeding the outside plants for around a decade. I think in all that time, it’s never been thoroughly cleaned, just rinsed with soapy water. It’s used every week from May to October.
When we tried to spray the peach trees in March it was constantly clogging up from the peeling off buildup inside. So a thorough cleaning was in order before it was put back in service this year.
A long rainy Thursday was perfect.
Taking apart the outside things was relatively easy. But it was obvious that the pressure chamber had to come out to get the worst of the mess out. We found a video and he used a hammer and towel and it slid right out. But that guy was working on a clean newer model than mine. Ours would not.
Marigolds
We found a pdf about repair and it said “Using the piece of wood and the hammer, you must forcefully drive the cylinder out through the bottom of the tank.” We finally got the pressure chamber out, but it took some hefty hits from my helper to do it.
We got it pretty clean and fortunately putting the chamber back in went much easier. It might have helped that we lubed the sticking parts first.
We got it all back together. I was a bit concerned about the hose. The hose clamp had compressed it a lot and I didn’t think it was truly tight. So we took it outside and sure enough that leaked. So we cut away the bad bit and there were no more leaks.
One thing we learned is that the pressure is adjustable. There’d been no manual with the sprayer when I bought. I found one online and printed it out. I also made notes as we went along and those will be kept with the manual. So now we are all ready for the first feeding on Friday, if it stops raining long enough.
In the evening I watched a movie on the couch under my 2 quilts and really wasn’t warm enough. I was really glad to get into bed where I had plenty of blankets and was deliciously warm.
Friday there’s the foliar feeding if it stops raining, or I will send my helper friend on errands. It took a lot longer to do the sprayer on Thursday than I thought it would, so there are still things to do on the list I’d made.
In the afternoon my #2 intern is coming and we are going to clean haylofts for mulch hay. Then I hope she can take off the tree protectors and cages and get them put away, if it doesn’t rain.