Using a Walk Behind Spreader

Video Transcript

"We're going to give some tips on application using one of these walk behind spreaders. One of the things you want to remember is that you' have to have the proper gate setting. It comes off the product you bought off the shelf and if you're spreader is listed it will have a specific setting for it. And one of the things you want to do before you think about spreading is to make sure you're in the area that you're going to apply, because as soon as you open this gate, gravity is going to cause whatever is in the hopper to start flowing out onto the spinner and if a big pile of it piles up on there and when you first move it and the spinner moves the first little bit it throws out a chunk of whatever fertilizer or herbicide or insecticide you're slinging in one spot, which is something you don't want to do. So what you want to be doing is moving when you open up the gate to start spreading. So you need to be in the area and be ready to go. So as you can see right now I'm moving it back and forth and there's no slinging going on. But I'm going to open the gate and start moving simultaneously. When you get to the end of where you're going, you turn it off. You look over to see how far it threw the material to the side so that you can get far enough over that you don't have a big overlap and so you don't have a skip. Then you start moving as soon as you open the gate. Now when you get to the end you turn it off because if you leave it open it's going to run out a big pile onto the slinger and throw all your material into one spot. So to move over for the next swath. Well I'm out of stuff, but you get the idea that to sling any kind of product correctly you need to know how the machinery works and how is the best way to get your application where it needs to be. Not in one pile, but spread out over the target area."