April 2022 - 20

MagGrowTec aids spray
coverage, input costs
By Gary Pullano
Editor
When CEO Gary
Wickham and his cofounder
David Moore
established MagGrow in
2013, they recognized
that despite advances
in sprayer and nozzle
technology, spray drift and other related
issues remain for growers.
MagGrow, which became
MagGrowTech in a rebranding of
the company in March, offers a
patented, proprietary technology that
aims to improve the efficiency of
pesticide applications. Wickham told
Fruit Growers News the technology
can reduce spray drift significantly
compared to conventional spraying,
resulting in better pesticide coverage
on the target plant canopy while using a
lower application rate.
" We set out to solve a big problem, "
Wickham said of the company that is
based in Dublin, Ireland. " That is, when
using crop protection products, growers
are wasting approximately 70%.
" More often than not, farmers didn't
know that they had that problem, "
Wickham said. " They were using
certain technology for generations,
using higher spray pressures when they
didn't need to. They were forced to
use medium- to coarse nozzles to try
to control airborne drift. The way to
have nozzle technology try to control
airborne drift was actually leading
to another problem called endo-drift
(creating such issues as chemical
pesticides polluting groundwater).
" Because water droplets in the
nozzles were making this runoff
scatter or bounce off the leaf or crop,
you would get this runoff and not the
smaller droplets that give you better
disease control and efficacy, " Wickham
said. " We had electrostatics which
actually weren't bad on coverage but it's
terrible on drift, and you need a power
supply and couldn't retrofit the nozzle
MagGrowTec CEO Gary Wickham,
above, said the company's spray system,
right, gets the droplets in the right
place. Photos: MagGrowTec
because it had a negative charge that
attracted inborne material in the nozzle.
They are notorious for maintenance and
never took off. "
" Both technologies didn't solve both
problems, " Wickham said. " MagGrow
came along and patented a technology
that solves this kind of challenge
between drift and coverage.
" The first product we launched is our
flagship boom product, " Wickham said.
" When it's used for a self-propelled or a
three-point hitch tractor, we can mount
MagGrow on it. We developed a very
simple system that uses permanent-wear
magnets inside aluminum manifolds
and stainless steel rods. It's a three
components' system. There's no
cables, wires or electricity in the
parts. We're exposing the fluid to a
magnetic field exposure.
" We pass the fluid to start non-uniform
magnetic fields. The type of flow is
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April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2022
