How to Flush Out a Garden Sprayer

Overview

The last thing you want to do during the growing season is to accidentally spray an herbicide weed killer on your prize tomato plants or mistakenly spray your roses with the wrong kind of fertilizer. If you don't properly clean and flush out your garden sprayer between uses, however, you may do just that. Cleaning your garden sprayer, its tank and all of its parts is imperative to preventing residues of chemicals from destroying your lawn, plants and garden. Flushing out your garden sprayer may take a few extra minutes of your time, but it's easy--and necessary.

Step 1

Fill the garden sprayer tank with clean water after all the chemical liquid is emptied from the tank. Fill the tank to about 10 percent of its capacity.

Step 2

Shake the water around the tank to rinse it. Spray the water out onto your lawn, garden or wherever you were spraying the chemical.

Step 3

Repeat this process two more times. Rinse the outside of the tank, the sprayer head and all of the garden sprayer's parts with clean water. Allow the empty, clean sprayer to dry before storing it.

Step 4

Clean the sprayer tank using a 1 to 2 percent solution of insecticidal soap between uses. Clean the tank with the insecticidal soap before storing the garden sprayer in the winter.