How to Select a Sprayer

The choice of sprayers available to rose growers is dependent on the size of the garden. The following is a guide to help you select an appropriate and durable sprayer with the proper capacity for your garden.

1. Small garden (up to 10 plants): The best choice here is a quart sprayer. Such devices provide a handy 1-quart compression sprayer with a high-pressure plastic tank. Units usually have a unique on/off or continuous-on trigger design. The nozzle adjusts spray from a fine mist to a 30-foot jet stream for those hard-to-reach climbers and ramblers.

2. Medium garden (10 to 30 plants): The choice here is at least a 1-gallon sprayer. It only takes a single pump to spray the entire gallon. Units are made of tough, high-impact injection-molded plastic, with a pressure-control gauge for low pressure and no-drift spraying. Comes with 20-inch wand.

3. Large Garden (30 to 100 plants): With this larger garden it is wise to invest in a backpack-sprayer unit with a capacity of 4 gallons (it delivers 75 pounds working pressure per square inch).

4. Very large garden (100 to 500 plants): For mobility, the best choice is a cordless electric sprayer that uses a 12-volt rechargeable battery with a 6-gallon plastic tank and 10 to 20 feet of hose (it delivers 60 pounds working pressure per square inch). Recharging time is approximately eight hours.