Frequently Asked Questions

Chemical Dosing?

One of the great advantages of liquids is their ability to act as carriers for products such as trace elements, fungicides soil wetters etc.

In Western Australia UAN (eg. Flexi N) is frequently used as the carrier for these products. In South Australia both Phosphoric acid and water have been used for similar purposes.

Dosing of the carrier liquid can be achieved by several methods.
  1. Tank Mixing
  2. Percentage based Mechanical Dosing
  3. Electronic Variable Dosing

Tank Mixing



This is by introducing the desired additive product to the main tank / carrier liquid and mixing as a batch. Always make sure that products are compatible! Good agitation is essential --- see our 'extreme agitation' system in Products / Systems!

Percentage based Mechanical Dosing



Percentage based Mechanical Dosing systems (eg. Dosatrons) are generally a simple and effective way to introduce products to the carrier liquid. Typically they are positive displacement precision mechanical devices activated by the flow of the carrier liquid and adjusted manually to a percentage of that flow. Such devices generally have percentage ranges (eg. 0.2-1.6%, 0.5-2.0%, 1-10%, 5-20%) of carrier flow.

Precise carrier rates are essential for these systems to function correctly as dosing rates are inextricably tied to carrier rates. The percentage rate of dose to carrier can usually be adjusted manually however generally there is no automated variability function. Bypass on/off for these units is also available.

Caution: These devices can cause severe system surging at low carrier rates!

Always make sure that products are compatible!

Electronic Dosing. (Variable Rate technology)

This is the most advanced method of chemical dosing and is usually utilized in conjunction with variable rate application of the carrier. For instance, utilizing GPS mapping to precisely apply liquid fertilizer at varying rates according to soil requirements usually means that trace elements or other chemicals need to be applied at rates that are at odds to a fixed ratio to the carrier liquid.

Take as an example applying UAN with a variable rate system where rates could continually vacillate between say 30 l/hectare to 70 l/hectare and where the requirement for Zinc application may be a steady 3 l/hectare or variable 3-5 l/hectare.

You can only achieve such control by using Electronic Variable Dosing systems because all rates are independent and automatic.

Note: The Spiker EVI is capable of liquid control down to approx. 1.5 – 2.0 l/minute.

In general, dilute the tank mix with water to:

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