Ranging from five- to 120-feet wide, Vogels Wick Weeder offers farmers another option when it comes to weed control.
Ralph Wasylyniuk, of Farm Agro Sales, was on site at Canada’s Farm Show at Regina, Sask., to discuss the implement, which, by the way, isn’t meant to be used as a replacement sprayer.
“It’s to be used when you did everything you can with a sprayer, but you still got a flush of weeds that you need to get,” he explains. “So anything above the crop, we’ll give it a wipe. We could be using glyphosate, or in the organic situation, we could be using industrial strength vinegar or apple vinegar.”
With overlapping wicks on a five foot section of tube, the wicks use a 2:1 ratio of water to chemical, with the chemical acting as a thickening agent so that it doesn’t run right through the wicks.
As the Wick Weeder gets pulled through the field, the weed will hit the wick, flip right over, and slide underneath.
“You’ll end up with about a three-to-four inch wipe. And that can be on a stem, that can be on a leaf, that can even be on a seed head, and the plant will start to die after that,” he says.
The implement could be use in scenarios where producers are facing resistance to specific chemicals, says Wasylyniuk, especially when it comes to weeds such as wild oats, where they sit much higher than the crop.
“I received a phone call from a fellow that had resistant wild oats in the field. And that’s exactly what he was going to be using this machine for, so that he could go in there and give it a wipe with glyphosate,” he explains. “I’ve even had fellows on previous years, where the crop was already mature, or just about mature. And the wild oats were way up above the crop. He was actually driving in the crop to give it a wipe down. Because this machine can go anywhere from just about to hit the ground, to 48 inches off the ground.”
Check out the full conversation, below:
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | All Podcasts