Safer pesticide sprayers are now available

An Irish-based company MagGrow with links to Salinas is making it safer for growers to spray pesticides thanks to devices that can be retrofitted to existing equipment.

Salinas Valley growers are using devices manufactured by MagGrow of Dublin, Ireland, with tractors and backpacks. Technology being used by the company helps prevent pesticides from drifting out of a field and helps droplets attach to crops.

Pesticide drift is a serious issue in California. The State Department of Pesticide Regulation in March announced new rules on ag pesticide use near schools and child daycare centers.

MagRow is one of many startup companies with a presence at the Western Growers Innovation and Technology Center in Salinas. The company was launched in 2013 by CEO Gary Wickham, who has a background in chemistry and pharmacy. It has won several prestigious awards for its products.

Impetus for MagGrow came when Wickham’s brother Derek met Ted Lenhardt, a Florida-based inventor with a 40-year background in agriculture. Derek met Lenhardt while he was in Florida looking for a house.

Lenhardt found that existing spraying technologies for crops were wasting 70 percent of pesticides. That could lead to pesticides drifting to adjacent farmland and water resources, causing potential cross-contamination. And, as previously noted, it could drift to expose farmworkers and people nearby fields.
“My brother said, ‘We need to do something with it,’” Wickham said, in a telephone conversation from his Dublin office.

The solution off the shelf nozzles that create finer pesticide droplets but without the drift. It is achieved by using magnetic inserts to induce a positive and negative charge into the pesticide solution. This makes it easier for the droplets to attach to the crop, but crucially without the drift.

MagGrow worked with universities to develop its products and is now working with UC Davis. Initially, it put patents in place, built prototypes and began testing them in different markets over three years.

Initial funding was $7 million euros, which came from Wickham’s network of family, friends and personal resources.

“We did a lot of testing at Dole on strawberries,” Wickham said. The testing produced a 70 percent reduction in pesticide drift. “We’re making sure whatever we spray goes to the crop and nowhere else,” he said.

Testing also found using MagGrow products reduced chemical use by a minimum of 20 percent and water use by more than 50 percent.

Air movement, nozzle size, tractor speed, boom height and the size of the pesticide droplets all influence drift.

Wickham then went on tour with the product information and test results. The company won the THRIVE Accelerator Sustainability Award last year at the Forbes AgTech Summit in Salinas. THRIVE Accelerator offers support to startup agtech companies.

MagGrow is, indeed, accelerating. It started with two employees, is now at 40 and is expected to grow to 100 by the end of the year, with offices in Europe, San Francisco, Ethiopia and Kenya. The spray devices have been patented in 127 countries across the U.S., Canada, Africa, Europe and South America.
“We’ve just signed up a distributor in Salinas to market (MagGrow products) and we’re working with … some big growers,” Wickham said.

The company’s main products, which have no moving parts, are its plug and play crop sprayer system for field spraying and its backpack sprayer system for large greenhouse operations and small farms.

MagGrow is not yet working with organic growers, but its products will work on organics, Wickham said.

At UC Davis MagGrow is working on an airblasting technique for applying pesticides in orchards. It is most likely to start with almond orchards, Wickham said. But Citrus orchards and vineyards are expected to use MagGrow products in the future. Application of pesticides by drones also is being considered.

“I firmly believe … that this is going to revolutionize crop protection, and it’s going to revolutionize farming in general,” Wickham said.