Active ingredients are the “rock stars” of agricultural and horticultural spray programmes, They’re relied on to control weeds, pests, and diseases across a whole range of the crops that growers’ and farmers’ livelihoods depend on. Adjuvants, however, are the unsung heroes ensuring the rock stars do the best job possible.
Adjuvants work behind the scenes. Often they are the ones that do the heavy lifting to extract the maximum value from spray programmes. Derived from the Latin verb "adjuvare - to help, aid or facilitate", adjuvants are used to modify the physical characteristics of spray solutions. This allows crop protection products such as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides work better and harder. Adjuvants can’t be used alone but work in conjunction to not only significantly enhance performance, but help with spray waste reduction, control drift and reduce water usage, fuel costs, labour and time. They truly are the unsung heroes!
Learn more about adjuvants and their superpowers by listening to our podcast series "Achieve more with adjuvants"
- UPL NZ Podcast: Adjuvants and their superpowers
- UPL NZ Podcast: How adjuvants improve your bottom line
- UPL NZ Podcast: How commonly are adjuvants used in agriculture?
- UPL NZ Podcast: Becoming leaders in adjuvants and good stewardship
The different types of adjuvants
Adjuvants cover a wide range of functions and can be split into several categories, with some adjuvants fulfilling more than one purpose at once.
The different types of adjuvants cover
- Surfactants (spreaders, super spreaders, stickers)
- Penetrants
- Activators
- ph Buffers
- Water conditioners
- Defoamers
- Drift control agents
- Tank cleaners
- Marker dyes
- Yield maximiser
You'll also find a overview of all our adjuvants in our handy Adjuvant Guide.
Surfactants (Spreaders, super spreaders and stickers)
Surfactants are surface-active agents. Adding a surfactant to a liquid reduces its surface tension, which increases its spreading, sticking and wetting properties. Surfactants can further be broken down to spreaders, super spreaders and stickers.
- Spreaders
Spreaders are non-ionic adjuvants used in moderate to high water volume applications of around 400-800 L/ha. Actiwett and Ranger are high quality, industry proven and cost effective spreaders.
- Oil spreaders
Oil spreaders such as Oil-Mate II work together with oil-based insecticides for optimum coverage and penetration essential for effective insecticide control.
Listen here to learn more about how Oil-Mate II helps winter oils to work better.
UPL NZ Podcast: Enhancing winter oils in orchards
- Super spreaders
Super spreaders lower the surface tension of the spray solution up to 6 times more than a spreader, hence the term super spreaders. Benefits are a much lower water volume application in 50-200 L/ha, a high work rate efficiency, and much better spread and spray coverage on difficult to wet surfaces such as grape berries, brassicas, onions and peas. Du-Wett is the star among super spreaders and the first one that was developed for and introduced into the New Zealand market. Du-Wett Organic delivers the same outstanding benefits, but with BioGro certification for organic growers.
- Stickers
Stickers prevent crop protection wash off from rainfall or irrigation, once fully dry. Their synthetic latex polymer does not encapsulate crop protection products, which allows systemic movement and natural degradation of the active. As a result, residue on crop is NOT extended. Well known and proven stickers are Bond Xtra (organisilicone/latex blend, moderate to high water volumes) and Du-Wett WeatherMax (organisilicone blend, low water volumes).
Du-Wett is backed up by an incredible amount of work. Listen to the podcast below to learn just how much work has been done.
The work behind super spreader Du-Wett
Learn more about surfactants by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: Surfactants
Penetrants
Penetrant adjuvants get spray solutions IN to the plant. They aid the uptake of mainly herbicides either through stomata or waxy cuticle of the plant.
- Lecithin based penetrants
These penetrants such as Li-700 and Li-1000 works through cuticular uptake, lifting the waxy platelets and allowing the product to move without cuticular disruption. Li-700 and Li-1000 are non-ionic, low foam penetrants for enhanced activity and penetration and excellent drift control. Li-700 is also an acidifier, acidifying spray solutions to prevent alkaline hydrolysis of herbicides.
- Organosilicone penetrants
Slikka, Max-Spred Low Foam or Satur8 penetrate the plant leaf via stomata, found in abundance in brush weeds like gorse, broom and bracken.
Activators
Activators are used to increase performance of certain herbicides that require an oil adjuvant. They can be further broken down as follows
- Crop Oil Concentrates (COC)
COCs are derived from paraffinic mineral oils. Examples are Peptoil and Sidekick. - Methylated Seed Oil (MSO)
MSOs such as Punch are derived from soy bean oil.
pH Buffers
pH buffers reduce the pH of spray solution from an alkaline to an acidic state which is preferred by certain chemistries such as glyphosate, a weak acid herbicide. Li-700 is a proven pH buffer, also known as acidifier.
Learn more about pH buffers by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: pH buffers, water conditioners, defoamers
Water conditioners
Water conditioners remove cations such as calcium, iron, magnesium that may be present in spray water which is also known as hard water. These cations can have a negative impact on some crop protection product performance such as glyphosate. X-Change is a well known and effective water conditioner that sacrifices itself to the cations to optimise glyphosate performance.
UPL NZ Podcast: pH buffers, water conditioners, defoamers
Defoamers
Defoamers prevent foam or eliminate foaming. FoamMaster is a highly effective anti-foam and defoamer, which requires only a small dose.
Learn more about defoamers by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: pH buffers, water conditioners, defoamers
Drift control
Getting spray droplets TO the target is critical. Off target
drift is wasteful and environmentally unacceptable. Using a drift control agent
such as Li-1000, Li-700 or Unison allows the spray droplet to land on the
target. These products eliminate driftable spray droplets, turning them into more suited
spray droplets without affecting spray swath.
Learn more about drift and drift control agents by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: Drift control agent
Tank Cleaners
Cross contamination of crop protection products in particular herbicide can cost several thousands of dollars in crop damages. All Clear 2X cleans, neutralises and decontaminate spray lines, nozzles, and tanks to ensure all residue is removed.
Learn more about the importance of tank cleaning by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: Take no chances & clean your tank
Marker dyes
Using marker dyes when spot spraying is also part of good agricultural practice as it minimises missed areas and reduces waste. While GPS systems have driven a decline in the use of many spray markings, Trakka Marker Dyes are still invaluable for spot spraying of gorse and brush weeds. The Trakka Marker Dye range covers: Trakka Red, Trakka Blue, Trakka Brite, and Trakka Long Life Foam Marker, their use dependent on preference and target.
Learn more about marker dyes and their benefits by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: Good agricultural practice with adjuvants: Foaming & Marker dyes
Yield maximiser
High value seed brassica crops including oilseed rape are particularly susceptible to shedding - also referred to in the industry as “shattering”. This is a naturally occurring process exacerbated by factors including the weather and harvesting itself. POD-LOCK is a unique pod sealer that protects valuable seed crops and resulting yield.
Learn more about shattering and pod sealers by listening to our podcast.
UPL NZ Podcast: Locking in profit for brassica seed growers
