Set up application presets and sprayers

Chemical tracking is part of SortScape Premium. An admin sets up two things once, and the crew uses them on every job:

• Application presets are your mixes. Each one has one or more products and the rate your business uses.
• Sprayers hold each sprayer’s tank size and how much area one full tank covers.

Each one takes about a minute to set up. After that, your crew picks it from a list on every job and SortScape works out the amounts for each tank. Then you’re ready to record an application.

Add an application preset

1. Open Settings → Time & materials → Chemicals.
2. Under Application presets, click Add application preset.
3. Give it a Name, such as “Woody weeds” or “Summer broadleaf”.
4. Choose the Application method. Pick Spray for products mixed into a tank of water, or Granular for products spread dry, such as fertiliser.
5. Start typing the Product name. You can also type the number printed on the label: the APVMA number in Australia, the EPA reg. no. in the US or the MAPP number in the UK. Pick the registered product to fill in the Registration number and Active ingredients. Wetting agents, dyes and most fertilisers aren’t registered, so just type the name.
6. Enter the Rate: the amount and its unit, then what it’s per. For example, 100 mL per 100 L, or 1.5 L per ha.
7. Click Add product for each extra product in the tank mix.
8. Tick Requires a licence if the person applying this mix must hold a pesticide licence. A record then can’t be saved without their licence number.
9. Optionally add a Default target, which fills in the pest or weed when the preset is recorded, and Notes.
10. Click Create.

Rates are set by your business. Always check the current product label.

Per litre or per hectare?

A rate per litre or gallon of water depends on how much mix you make. A rate per m², hectare, ft² or acre depends on the area you spray, and the water only carries it. For a per-area rate, SortScape needs to know how much ground one tank covers, so the sprayer has to be calibrated.

Add a sprayer

1. Open Settings → Time & materials → Chemicals.
2. Under Spray equipment, click Add sprayer.
3. Enter a Name and the Tank size.
4. Enter Covers per tank, the area one full tank sprays, and the date you measured it. If you don’t know it yet, calibrate the sprayer first (see below).
5. Click Create.

Calibrate a sprayer

1. Put clean water in the tank and note the level.
2. Mark out a test patch, for example 50 m², and spray it at your normal walking pace and pressure.
3. Measure how much water you used. One full tank covers the tank size divided by the water used, times the test patch. A 15 L tank that used 2.5 L on 50 m² covers 300 m².
4. Open Settings → Time & materials → Chemicals, open the sprayer’s menu and click Record calibration.
5. Enter Covers per tank and Calibrated on, then save.

SortScape keeps every calibration as a history. It warns you when a sprayer hasn’t been calibrated for 12 months, and a whole-area spray at a per-area rate can only use a calibrated sprayer.

The free spray mix calculator does the test patch sum for you.