If I were you, I'd get a battery powered 4 gallon backpack sprayer. A pump sprayer varies too much in terms of pressure to do any blanket spraying. At least with an electric backpack sprayer, the pump should spray a reasonably consistent pressure to give you consistency. They are a lot cheaper than they used to be too and seem pretty durable.

I bought a Chaplin very basic 1 gallon hand-pump from Amazon and brand-new from the box wouldn't budge or spray. The reviews for a pump sprayer are really bad even if one spends $30. So personally don't feel like taking the leap for something more expensive. If Chaplin couldn't figure out how to design a $10 sprayer, I am skeptical about a battery powered one from Chaplin or any other brand for that matter.

I have a Shurflo backpack sprayer that is quite a few years old now. Still works great but the battery is a 12V garden battery that makes it quite heavy. The last couple of years, I have as my primary backpack sprayer a Field King Promax 18V lithium. It is a well thought out machine that has performed great--right down the the padded harness that you strap it on with. Hard to go back to manual pump back pack sprayers. My pump sprayers all manage to leak eventually...even the pricey ones! I need to replace my 2 and 3 -gallon pump sprayers but don't know what to get. Smaller pump sprayers definitely have their place for spot spraying.

That. Pre-ems really aren't made to be applied with pump sprayers, although I guess you could. I've always used a hose-end. If you can even the flow out an get even coverage, go for it and use any setting that works for you--and the ounce per gallon setting for the pre-emergent.

Some you can dilute further. Some are absolutely set in their ways. If there's a recommendation, follow it.

Mishmosh- need to look into that sprayer. Thanks for the recommendation!

I found the above screenshot from another forum. The hose-end is tempting to use as it will be quicker as well.

Morphe - how does the hose-end work? It sounds tricky. Let's say you need to use an herbicide at 0.5 oz / 1000 sq feet. Do you add the powder to the granule and then dilute it with a cup of water and then set the hose-end to the lowest setting?

I use one that's even trickier, but let's not go into that. :-)

With said herbicide, they all list a setting for the Ortho so that's easy (Orthos are one of the most common ones on the market although I personally think they're terrible and break very easily...buy two). Use the setting they show and mark off that area on your lawn with flags or set out cans or something.

1,000 square feet is roughly 33 feet square. So for 0.5 per K (setting 1), you'd put half an ounce of colored water or cold coffee in and mark out 33 feet square and practice applying that over the area (tough due to the small amount, but...) Then apply that knowledge to the lawn with the real herbicide.

After two or three apps, you get the feel of how fast it goes and can simply do it, realizing there's some give in the formula for most things.

Since I never blanket spray herbicides and only spray Prodiamine, kelp, and soap (none of which care about dilution rates), it doesn't really matter. My really difficult one is fine and I just use a high dilution rate to move stuff right into the soil.

Hose end spraying is VERY tricky. I gave up on it. My water pressure is about 65 psi which must be high because anytime I've tried to use hose end products they run out extremely quickly. I think I do OK with a 2 gal pump sprayer.

In those cases (I have lower water pressure of around 30 psi), adjust the settings downward by one step, which usually halves the amount used, for items where dilution doesn't matter.

That doesn't include herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, where it matters. :-) In those cases, use a pump sprayer. For most pre-emergents and for the kelp, soap, or humic acid applications, it makes no difference and you can use any convenient dilution.

mishmosh - I looked up Shurflo backpack sprayer, wow $287- $360? At that price, I would expect it have a small stand and move me around the lawn automatically spraying the herbicide :)

lol. back 7-8 years ago, it was around $180. If you don't mind manually pumping, manual pump backpack sprayers can be had for $50-60. My old Solo (RIP) used to have 3 pressure settings and was very consistent. slow easy pace puts down 1 gallon per 1000 sq feet.

Ok, I followed the Ortho-setting (1.5 Tsp) I had posted earlier. And just tried at 0.36 oz / 1000 sq ft for a 500 sq feet area. It took a long time. Probably the biggest mistake I did was add 1 tsp of Prodiamine and diluted it with 100 ml of water to make a concentrate.

In the end I think my manual pump sprayer would have been better. The problem with my Round-up - 1 gallon sprayer is doesn't seem to have a good spray pattern. So the (Front and Right) side of my house is treated with the hand-pump and the left front side is done with the Ortho. Time will tell if my experiment worked.

There's a pretty wide window with Prodiamine where you won't damage anything. Ask me about the time I accidentally applied double the proper amount because I simply wasn't paying attention. Issues...none. The barrier fell after 9 months, about the maximum amount of time, just about when the maximum barrier would have fallen.

I use a much heavier drop to get mine down, so it goes faster (a, for me, slow walk, or what would be a modest walk for anybody else), with an eight foot sweep. But again, I'm using a wet sprayer that's definitely not an Ortho. I can go look if anybody's interested, the name always escapes me.