Pesticide spray records: what to log and for how long

The spray record is the one log you don’t keep for your own convenience. You keep it because it’s an obligation for every professional user of plant protection products — and because, when something goes wrong, it’s the only thing that proves exactly what you did.

In practice, most records aren’t incomplete because someone decided not to write things down. They’re incomplete because logging was put off until the evening, and by the evening everyone remembered the product but not the dose.

Three reasons the record exists

• The law. A professional user keeps a record of the plant protection products they apply. The EU regulation on plant protection products requires it to be kept for at least three years.
• The client. A garden owner with children or a dog will ask when they can go back in. A grower will need the details for whoever buys their produce.
• You. The next outbreak in the same place starts from what works and what doesn’t — and from rotating active substances, which can’t be done from memory.

What every entry must include

One line per application, with the following fields. If one of them is missing, the entry doesn’t answer the question you’ll be asked:

• Date and time of application.
• Location — garden, plot or greenhouse, with an identifier and the area.
• Crop or plant species sprayed.
• Trade name and authorisation number of the product — not just the active substance.
• Dose and spray volume per unit of area.
• The reason — the pest, disease or weed being treated.
• Re-entry interval and pre-harvest interval, as set out on the label.
• Who applied it and their certificate number.
• Weather conditions — wind and temperature, which determine whether the application was permitted.

In Greece, for example, the purchase and professional application of pesticides is also tied to a use prescription and to a certificate of knowledge in sustainable use. Wherever you work, your record should match the national paperwork, not live alongside it. The details change with each new decision — check the current requirements in your country before you finalise your form.

How long to keep it

The minimum is three years. But the practical answer isn’t the minimum: a tree lives for decades and resistance builds up over five or six seasons. Keep the record for as long as your relationship with the site lasts, not just as long as the law requires.

This is also where paper loses: the 2023 binder isn’t in the van, and the question is always asked on site.

The harvest interval is the field that hurts

The re-entry interval tells you when a person or animal can step onto the area. The pre-harvest interval tells you when the produce can be eaten. They’re two different numbers and they get mixed up all the time.

The practical issue isn’t knowing them — they’re printed on the label. It’s that the client has to remember them, not you. An entry that doesn’t end in a clear message to the owner (“don’t go into the garden until Thursday morning”) has satisfied the law and left the risk exactly where it was.

Where the paper record breaks down

• It’s filled in at the end of the day, when four applications have blurred into one vague memory.
• It stays at the depot, while the question is asked in the garden.
• It can’t be searched: “what did we use here last May?” means leafing through pages, so it doesn’t happen.
• It doesn’t remind you. The next preventive spray doesn’t come out of a notebook.
• It gets lost. A soaked or forgotten notebook has no backup.

The practical rule: log it where you apply it

The only way for the record to be complete is to fill it in before you leave the site, with the product still in your hand. When the entry sits on the garden’s record, each location’s history can be read years later and the next spray goes into the schedule automatically — that’s how GardenPro works.

How preventive applications fit into the annual plan is covered in the seasonal garden work schedule, and how to price plant protection within a contract in garden maintenance pricing.

Conclusion

Nine fields, one line per application, three years as a minimum and filled in on site. The spray record isn’t bureaucracy added on top of the work — it’s the only place where the work you did stays provable after you’ve left.