Backpack sprayer advice?

Hi,

I'm just shopping for a back-pack sprayer for spraying compost tea, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice about which kind to get (brand, nozzle, wand, etc), because there seem to be a bunch of different brands and prices out there...

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

Kate

Compost tea is hard to spray. It has lots of stuff that plugs pumps, valves and nozzles. You either need to go high end $300 or cheap $30 and plan on burning through them..

I went to a big pressurized tank sprayer because the pump only pumps air and doesn't plug. You need a coarse nozzle, one that is easy to take apart and clean.

I bought a cheap one for $10 at Home Depot. It worked for 7 years, then I bought another of the same one and interchanged parts. That has worked for about 5 years, but I only spray two or three times a year. It is crucially important with fungal compost tea to only filter it with something reasonable big-like a paint strainer available at any paint store for $2. Tighter strainers will hold back the fungal hyphae. I couldn't figure out why the rust on my quince and serviceberries didn't get better.
John S
PDX OR

Ok, great. Thanks to you both. I haven't yet come across such a cheap version as the one you bought, John, but I will keep my eyes open for one. I think for such a small surface (about an acre), it is not worth it for me to go with the 300$ version.

Good advice about the strainer too, thanks.

The store bought backpack sprayers I've seen generally run about $60 and up with a 4 gallon capacity. My preference is to just get a $5 one gallon (or a $10 two gallon) sprayer and stick it in a $2 backpack I bought at Goodwill. The nice thing about having multiple inexpensive sprayers is that you can use one sprayer for one use and avoid cross contamination.