Bob is a cannabis COO with Kind Farms in California, and is CEO of the Shale Peak Horticulture. His professional background is in entomology and plant science at University of California Davis, where he served as a Sr. Superintendent of Agriculture in the department of Entomology and Plant Sciences managing greenhouses and insectaries. He currently uses OnTarget’s Cube for his greenhouse spraying program.
When asked about Bob’s experience with spraying and electrostatics, he celebrated OnTarget Spray Systems for its reliability and durability.
“It’s a game changer,” said Bob, remarking that the electrostatic companies of the 80s and 90s didn’t work the way he needed. “But when they did work, it was great coverage and very exciting.”
Fast forward 20 years, and Bob stayed interested in electrostatics, because the science was there, but he was waiting for a company to perfect the technology. After meeting OnTarget Founder and President Willie Hartman through a mutual colleague, Bob began to follow the leader in electrostatic’s work on Instagram.
“I saw a couple of OnTarget sprayers, and then I got one for Kind Farms. We use it, and I love it,” shared Bob. “It works so well, and uses such a small amount of product.”
When asked about the difficulties facing cannabis growers, IPM, and the time it takes to spray, Bob compared it to traditional agriculture industries.
“It’s twice as hard because cannabis growers are not allowed to use 98 percent of what’s available to other growers in terms of active ingredients,” said Bob. “Especially cannabis, if you’re not getting the product on the actual target, it’s not going to work.”
With fewer pesticides available to cannabis growers, it becomes crucial that farmers give their plants complete, 360-degree coverage with every spray to keep mildew and mites at bay.
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“We spray horticulture oils through OnTarget, as well as sulfur for powdery mildew,” he continued. “But newer products are very expensive. You’re looking at some chemicals at $600 a gallon. If I were to put that through a regular sprayer, well, a regular sprayer wastes a ton of spray.”
Because of OnTarget’s patented technology, the device not only positively charges each and every droplet, but farmers like Bob are excited for it’s low-volume technique, saving farmers thousands of dollars each year on water and product.
“Just for an example, if we wanted to spray our 10,000 foot greenhouse, with a dram high-pressure mist sprayer, it would take 40-50 gallons to spray the whole thing,” Bob explained. “And a lot of that runs off the leaf, and drips on the ground, and it’s wasted. But with OnTarget we use only 6-10 gallons.”
Farmers like Bob still use the per-gallon-rate with chemical inputs, but when switching to OnTarget, he explained that he now gets 10 sprays instead of two to three sprays, out of the same $600 gallon jug.
“You’re saving a ton of money. And the ability to hit both sides of the leaf with OnTarget is a novel thing,” Bob continued. “Not only does this save farmers’ chemical costs, but it gives very good coverage, better than any other sprayer.”
Bob believes that seeing is believing, and it was the OnTarget demonstrations that sealed the deal for him.
“During the demos, once I saw how you can spray a leaf and it hits the backside, the efficacy is undeniable,” he concluded.