“Spray Boom” Garden Waterer

“Spray Boom” Garden Waterer FARM HOME Miscellaneous FARM SHOW reader Larry Symynuk recently sent photos of a 20-ft boom from an old field sprayer that he converted to water his garden     The aluminum boom is located  about 7  ft off the ground   mounted on lengths of square steel tubing A garden hose attaches to one end of the boom which has nozzles spaced 32 in apart Symynuk positioned the nozzles to face upward in order to provide a wide spray pattern     When he wants to water the garden he just opens the faucet on back of his house and walks away The water falls as a heavy mist and covers about a 10-ft wide area     “I’ve been using this idea for 2 years on 2 different gardens and it works great I have very little money tied up in it ” says Symynuk     “A lot of people tell me they want to try the same idea on their own garden More and more farmers are using big self-propelled sprayers so there are a lot of old pull-type sprayers out there free for the taking ”     The pull-type sprayer was given to him by a neighbor It came equipped with an 8-ft center section and two 20-ft wings which fastened to the sprayer with small U-bolts Symynuk removed the boom then drilled 1/4-in holes through one end of the gazebo tubing and U-bolted the boom to it He then drove lengths of rebar into the ground and slipped the other end of the tubing over them “I placed the tubing within the row so there’s room to cultivate between rows ” says Symynuk     Since the water comes down as a heavy mist he sprays mostly in the evening or early morning when it’s usually less windy “On windy days I might not irrigate at all Sometimes hummingbirds fly through the mist which is fun to watch ” says Symynuk “If I want I can loosen the U-bolts and rotate the boom to direct the water to either side One advantage of upward facing nozzles is that if any dirt gets inside the boom it’ll stay there without getting inside the  nozzles and clogging them up ”     Symynuk says he had been using swivel-type lawn sprinklers in his garden but didn’t like having to drag hoses around all the time Also after the plants got too high they blocked the spray pattern     “Because the boom is high off the ground it distributes water evenly across the garden It’s never in the way as I can walk right under it Also if I want to rototill the garden in the fall I can quickly disassemble the waterer ” notes Symynuk      Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Larry  Symynuk   Box 5 Denholm Sask Canada S0M 0R0 ph 306 445-4817; larsym01@sasktel net  

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