User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Better Oil Can for Applying BTK/Oil to Sweet Corn?

¡Hola Everyone! I'm back! (Not that I actually went anywhere; I just got really busy.)

I'm still growing Bi-Licious sweet corn every year for my annual Labor Day "Corn-U-Copia" Harvest Party. In addition to a bug zapper, I'm also applying BtK oil to each ear on Day 60, which is 24 days before harvest/party time.

I've been using this $10 oil can for the past few years, and it works, but it's not great:
  1. Hard to control the amount of oil. It's designed to put a much larger squirt of oil than I want. I put a screw under the lever to shorten the travel to about 3/8", and that works OK, but it's still more than I want. Ideally I want about 1/10 of a teaspoon, per the IA State recommendations.
    Image
  2. Impossible to clean. Maybe this wouldn't be a problem if I'd flushed it fastidiously every time I used it, but now it's pretty gummy with old oil, and that old oil residue just doesn't come off with soap and water. I don't want to soak it in a stronger solvent, because I use this for food.
  3. Wasteful. The pickup cylinder doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the can, so I need to fill the can all the way to the top in order for it to work. But then I use only about 1/4 of the oil I put in it (for ~150 ears) and have to throw away the rest, because it won't keep for year.
According to the IA State report, there was once a commercial applicator called the "Zea-lator" but it was $109 when it was available, and apparently it's no longer available. The Zea-lator also had a capacity of 2 liters, which suggests that I might have the same problems with waste if I only need a few oz. of oil/BTK mix.

So does anyone else apply small amounts of BTK/oil to their sweet corn? What do you use for an applicator? And on what day do you apply it?

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Try an eye dropper or small syringe instead instead. You only need about 5 drops of oil.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I was thinking pipette, too — we’re talking about 1/3 cup of oil total, right? Only issue might be the two handed operation needed to hold a container, though if you could somehow strap a container to your belt, that might solve it.

So for ease of use, maybe a flavor injector syringe (kitchen gadget — used for injecting broth, etc typically under turkey skin). If fine mist is OK, then maybe salad sprayer (for folks who want to control/limit amount of oil — it’s a non-aerosol, refillable with pump-and-spray mechanism).

If solid drops or a stream is needed, then what about a water gun (consider it a disposable, since it would be hard to clean). Or possibly a regular manual sprayer with twist nozzle to adjust to a stream — 8 oz size.


...regarding your oil can not reaching the bottom — frustrating! — I’ve often extended the manual sprayer tubing with other tubing — you just have to find one that is a good tight friction fit — in my case, for a very skinny tubing, I found the best fit with a juice box straw, others with aquarium air pump tubing, and yet others with manual pump sprayer trigger that failed, but the suction tubing could be removed, saved, and repurposed.

User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

I use two hands right now--one to point the end of the output hose directly into the silk channel, and the other to squeeze the lever.

My worry with a pipette or a syringe is that I'll either have to reload after every injection, which will slow me down 10x, and/or that I won't get good control over the dosage.

The nice feature of a syringe would be precise application. I really do want the oil to go right into the silk channel. I don't have to really inject it with any force, because if I put it in the correct place it will "wick" into the silk channel via surface tension, but I don't want to just spray it, because it's only effective if it goes into the correct place.

I just thought of a possible solution to the wastage issue, which is to fill the container up with marbles or largish ball bearings. Then the oil will come up higher on the take-up cylinder. I'll have to try that next year.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Most of the meat injector syringes I’ve seen are 2 oz = 12 tsps capacity

User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

That would be enough for me to dose quite a few ears before refiling, but I wouldn't have the ability to control each dose very well. The good thing about the oil can is that I can squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and get a reasonably uniform dose each time. I just wish I could adjust it a bit easier.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Haha I had to look —- how about this one? 1/2 tsp is about 2.5 ml.

Image

Amazon.com : Adjustable and Continuous Syringe Animal Injector Gun Animal Drench Gun for Veterinarian : Pet Supplies
https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-Conti ... B075K2JG5V

...this looks like an inexpensive model (what is “high polymer”? Is that stronger than just plastic?) — there’s another metal-looking one labeled “professional” for about twice as much... Package of needles sold separately.

User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

OMG! That looks perfect! I just ordered with with One-Click, and I should have it tomorrow.

Interestingly, I'd read somewhere (maybe here!) that an "animal vaccinator" could be easily adapted for injecting BTK/Oil, but I didn't find this unit. I was probably using the wrong search terms.

Anyway, I look forward to using this next year. For $17 I really can't lose.

User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Received, next day! It seems to be pretty much exactly what I'll need next year, but I'll need to find or make some accessories, since this is designed for vaccinating livestock, not corn. I gather from all my searches that the generic term for this gizmo is a "bottle mount vaccinator," and it's actually a pretty sophisticated tool. But there was no useful documentation included with my $17 version, so I'm having to read other mfrs' docs to figure this out. Here's a slightly larger photo, for reference:

Image

A vaccine bottle gets plugged into the top:

Image

The dose gets temporarily stored in this horizontal reservoir, and the dose is adjustable via the large blue dial to the right, between the grips:

Image

When you squeeze the handle/trigger, the dose of vaccine (or BTK and oil in my case) gets pushed out through the tip. When you release the grip, the new dose gets sucked into the reservoir from the bottle that's mounted on top, and a one-way valve prevents backflow from the output tip.

This is the output tip, which will need to have some sort of needle or hose attached to it. From what I can tell, it might be a standard "luer slip" tip. Does that look right?

Image

Here's where the vaccine bottle would mount:

Image

There's another one-way valve below there, so the dose can't get pushed back into the bottle when you squeeze the trigger.

This clear thingy is a bottle guard, to protect a glass bottle of vaccine from getting damaged while you're working:

Image

If I understand correctly, in normal use the vaccine bottle would have a rubber cap that would be pierced by that blue tip.

But that bottle guard is threaded, and the receiver on the body of the injector has a male thread like this. The outside diameter is about 30 mm, the part between the threads is about 28 mm, and the threads themselves have a spacing of about 2.1 mm (e.g. 6.39 mm for 3 threads):

Image
Image
Image

If I can adapt a small container to a female thread like that, then I can just screw on a bottle of my BTK/Oil, and it might just work.

They also supplied this blue plastic collar, which looks like it's designed to hold a small vaccine bottle, and then screw onto the receiver.

Image

Issues:
  1. I have no idea what thread that is. It's larger than a soda bottle cap or a hose thread.
  2. It's the wrong gender for screwing on a bottle.
  3. BTK/oil might be too viscous for all the valves in this gizmo.
Is anyone here a livestock veterinarian? Anyone know what I can screw onto this gizmo to hold my oil?

Thanks!

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

This is getting really interesting!

I have small rubber/silicone grommets for converting plastic canning jar lids into fermentation jar lids. (you drill a hole in the lid and fit the grommet, then use the S-shaped or 3 piece fermentation one way valve to allow gasses to escape. You also need to add silicone ring inside the lid for tight seal)

I also have an assortment of differently sized grommets and hole caps that I have been using for making air/water-tight seal holes for the airlines and waterlines in my diy Airlift pond pump project.

I could imagine drilling a hole in cap of an appropriately sized bottle and fitting it with a correct size grommet to insert the “blue tip”


...if the oil you are using is too viscous, maybe you could mix with more refined oil to reduce the viscosity?

User avatar
TheWaterbug
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

applestar wrote:I could imagine drilling a hole in cap of an appropriately sized bottle and fitting it with a correct size grommet to insert the “blue tip”
Yeah, I'm thinking this is going to the be the way to go. I'll have to see if I can buy that blue tip as a replacement part, which would give me a few to experiment with.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”