Guidance to help you follow the law on checking pesticide application equipment.
By law, Plant Protection Product (PPP) application equipment must be tested. You must test all equipment (except knapsack and handheld sprayers) that is five years old or over. New equipment has until its fifth anniversary to be tested for the first time.
The full list of the types of equipment that need testing is:
- ground crop sprayer (mounted/trailed) boom less than 3m
- granule or pellet applicator
- boat mounted applicators (boom less than 3m)
- boat mounted granule applicators
- fogging, misting and smoking equipment
- batch dipping equipment
- seed treating equipment
- conveyor, roller table, other moving equipment
- sub-surface liquid applicator
- weed wipers
- planter-mounted and variable geometry (including vertical) boom sprayers (less than 3m)
The National Sprayer Testing Scheme (NSTS) is responsible for carrying out equipment testing. The links below set out the requirements for equipment testing, such as:
- Sprayer testing (on nsts.org.uk)
- Micro granular testing (on nsts.org.uk)
- Slug pellet applicator testing (on nsts.org.uk)
More information is available on the National Sprayer Testing Scheme website. There is also a selection of useful checklists for the different types of equipment.
Equipment that is not in use or which is not used for applying pesticides is not affected.