Tank Mix Calculator
How many acres per tank, how much of each product goes in, and what order to add it — for a full tank, a partial fill, or the whole job.
Your sprayer and the job
Rates are per acre for field work, or per 1,000 sq ft for turf, lots and right-of-way.
Don't know your carrier rate? Work it out from speed and spacing
What's going in the tank?
Add each product with the rate from its label. Any unit works — per acre, per 100 gallons, or percent of the spray volume. Formulation sets the mixing order.
Mix for
Mixing order
Fill the tank half full with water and start agitation, then add products in this order, letting each one disperse before the next. Top off with water to the final volume.
Before you spray
- Jar test first if this is a combination you haven't run before: mix the same proportions in a quart jar, let it sit 15–30 minutes, and look for curdling, gel or settling that won't shake back in.
- Add products to a moving tank — agitation on, tank at least half full. Dry products and flowables go in slowly, never in a lump.
- Use an inductor rather than climbing on the tank: safer, faster, and it rinses jugs in the same step. We build the SCE Inductor Tank Kit in-house with a Banjo 2" venturi and jug rinse.
- Check your tip strainers before the first load of the season — a mix with dry formulations plugs 100 mesh fast. Tip strainers →
- Confirm the sprayer is actually delivering this carrier rate: 30-second catch test. If GPA is off, every product rate is off with it.
- Keep people and pets upwind while you mix. Questions about a mix? Ask Dusty or call (509) 838-2209.
How to figure a tank mix
Every tank mix comes down to two numbers: how many acres one tank covers, and how much of each product that many acres needs. The first is tank size divided by carrier rate — a 500-gallon tank at 15 GPA covers 33.3 acres. The second is the label rate times those acres — 22 fl oz/acre of a herbicide × 33.3 acres = 733 fl oz, or 5.7 gallons, per tank. The calculator above does that for every product in the load, converts to units you can actually measure, and handles the awkward last partial tank.
Product per tank = label rate per acre × acres per tank
Rates per 100 gallons and percent solutions
Surfactants, crop oils, spot-spray herbicides and most turf products are labeled per 100 gallons of spray or as a percent by volume. Per 100 gallons: divide tank gallons by 100 and multiply by the rate. Percent v/v: 0.25% of a 500-gallon tank is 1.25 gallons (500 × 0.0025). Both are built in — pick the unit from the dropdown.
Mixing order: W.A.L.E.S.
With the tank half full of water and agitation running, the usual sequence is Wettable powders and water-dispersible granules, Agitate, Liquid flowables and suspensions, Emulsifiable concentrates and solutions, then Surfactants and oils last. Water conditioners like AMS go in before anything else so they can tie up hard-water minerals before the herbicide meets them. Compatibility agents, if the label calls for one, go in right after the water.
| Formulation | On the label | Goes in |
|---|---|---|
| Water conditioner | AMS, "water conditioning agent" | First |
| Dry | WP, WDG, DF, DG, SP, WG | Second — slowly, agitation on |
| Flowable | F, SC, L, suspension concentrate | Third |
| Emulsifiable / solution | EC, E, SL, S, ME | Fourth |
| Adjuvant | Surfactant, NIS, COC, MSO, drift agent | Last |
Common questions
How many acres will my sprayer cover per tank?
Tank gallons divided by gallons per acre. A 1,000-gallon tank at 10 GPA covers 100 acres; at 20 GPA, 50 acres. If you don't know your GPA, work it back from speed, tip spacing and the GPM per tip from a catch test — there's a helper in step 1.
How do I mix a partial tank?
Divide the gallons you're mixing by your GPA to get the acres that fill covers, then multiply each product's rate by those acres. Pick "A partial fill" in step 3 and enter the gallons — it does the math and the mixing order for just that load.
How much product do I need for the whole field?
Enter your acres in step 1 and choose "The whole job." You'll get the number of full tanks, the size of the last partial fill, and the total of each product so you know how many jugs or bags to bring.
What is 1% solution in a 25-gallon sprayer?
One percent of 25 gallons is a quarter gallon — 32 fluid ounces. Enter the tank size and the rate as "% v/v" and the calculator gives it to you in ounces, cups or quarts.
Does the water go in before or after the product?
Half the water first, with the agitator running, then products in W.A.L.E.S. order, then the rest of the water. Never put concentrate into an empty tank — it can gel on the bottom or foam over.
Related tools
Sprayer calibration & tip check · Nozzle selector · Pump finder · Tanks & chemical handling · SCE Inductor Tank Kit
Call (509) 838-2209