The wet start to the 2020 growing season has left many farmers and growers battling challenging ground conditions. This year, the relentless rain meant that Charltons particularly struggled with one of its steepest sloping sites, finding it impossible to drive their trailed orchard sprayer on the persistently wet ground.
Based at Rumwood Green Farm in Langley, Kent, Charltons is a fourth-generation family fruit business growing apples, strawberries and cherries on approximately 445 hectares, across 11 sites, all located within a 5-mile radius.
We were able to deliver a mounted OCLL APUS 5 orchard sprayer within a matter of days, helping Charltons to get back on track with their early season spray programme.
This air blast sprayer, which has a small tower for spraying horizontally or vertically, is specifically designed for use in compact spaces and on sloping ground where there is minimal room for manoeuvre.
Particularly in Kent, we find that a lot of our fruit customers have orchards planted on sites with steep gradients and heavy soils. Having a mounted sprayer alongside a trailed option is the only way to guarantee that sprayer operators can get out in the spring, when the orchard floor is exceptionally slippery and problematic.
As machinery technology changes year-on-year, you may be surprised at how many orchard sprayer options are now available. Orchards too are forever evolving and so, even if you haven’t experienced any ground related issues this season, it is always worth assessing whether your sprayer is best suited to your orchard system.
For more information on the wide range of orchard sprayers we supply, please phone the office on 01580 712200.