As May broaches and the possibility of drier weather finally arrives, growers are encouraged to utilise the benefits of adjuvant technology to help maximise spraying hours and overcome the challenging conditions for crop protection success.
A growing season dominated by stop start and false hope has left many growers way behind on spring drilling and spraying schedules, with the pressure on to catch up when conditions allow.
“Timing of crop protection sprays is often crucial to get effective results, and with warmer days on the horizon, we can expect crops, weeds and diseases to all take off, especially where spray timings are already compromised, says Stuart Sutherland, technical manager at Interagro.
Suboptimal field conditions remain in many fields however, and unsettled – catchy and drifty – weather may continue to hamper timings and effective application. This is where adjuvant technology will be extremely beneficial this spring.
Key Points
- Weather may continue to hamper timings and effective application.
- Adjuvants are specifically designed to help overcome the challenges that threaten your ability to spray and compromise crop protection efficacy.
- Pre-ems compromised? Re-enforce with Backrow Max.
- Fungicide timings challenging – alleviate risk with Kantor.
Adjuvant advice
“Adjuvants are specifically designed to help overcome the challenges that threaten your ability to spray and compromise crop protection efficacy, explains Stuart. “This season, I would strongly encourage growers to consider incorporating a decent adjuvant – with pre-ems and fungicide sprays in particular,” he urges. You’ll need to select an appropriate adjuvant type for your situation, so we’ll consider the different spray jobs you may have coming up, in turn.
Pre-ems compromised? Re-enforce with Backrow Max
Dry days and drying winds are helping to improve field conditions, but in the short term, more rainfall may continue to saturate fields in some areas. This will improve over time, but be mindful when applying pre-emergence herbicides that wet soils and heavy rainfall increases the risk of herbicides moving beyond the weed germination zone – the top 5cm of the soil.
“If this happens, the herbicide concentration remaining in the top 5cm may be insufficient to kill tough to control weeds such as black-grass and other pernicious grass and broad-leaved weeds you are trying to prevent from competing with the crop,” Stuart warns.
“Herbicide movement will be a bigger problem on the lighter soils/parts of the field where there is less organic matter to bind herbicides in the soil, and here especially, be careful of herbicides washing down to the crop seed which could hamper establishment. Some spring residual herbicides especially, can be prone to movement.
“These risks can be avoided by teaming pre-emergence herbicides with Interagro’s residual herbicide adjuvant Backrow Max.“
Top-performing retention
Numerous scientific research studies have proven that it significantly increases herbicide retention in the soil, and critically in the upper 5cm. The independent studies, conducted with active ingredients, pendimethalin, clomozone and more recently cinmethylin (as in Luximo) showed all herbicides have the potential to move in wet soils, and adjuvants vary in the retention abilities.
In the studies, Backrow Max achieved top-performing retention compared to competitor adjuvants on test, including Adhere.
“As Backrow Max is approved for use in an extensive list of winter and spring crops, and up to the latest timing of the herbicide, it is a tool that could really benefit many growers this spring,” adds Stuart.
On target spraying
“With spring barley and potato crops both behind schedule, it’s also definitely worth considering Backrow Max for its drift reducing abilities – it may just buy you an opportunity to spray, rather than delay you further. This spring every spray day counts.”
Fungicide timings challenging – alleviate risk with Kantor
Optimal targeting of wheat fungicide sprays is proving difficult as crops are at variable growth stages.
With disease lurking in the base of many wheat and barley crops, rampant disease pressure could be on the cards when temperatures rise and crops start racing through growth stages, particularly if this coincides with intermittent showers.
“Growers could find themselves in a challenging scenario where both protectant and curative fungicide activity become vital to protect yield building leaves,” cautions Stuart.
From a wheat T1 spraying perspective, that means getting sprays on in time to protect fully emerged leaf three and yet to emerge leaf two. In more forward crops at T2, protecting leaf two and the flag leaf will be crucial.
But at T1 and T2, optimising fungicide coverage across leaf layers can be challenging, as droplet deposition trials show. “The temptation to increase forward speeds and reduce water volumes to cover more hectares with the sprayer, may help with the workload, but this can also compromise coverage, jeopardising the effectiveness of the application,” warns Stuart.
Stronger protection across all leaf layers
On time and on target spraying is key for best results and this is where a good adjuvant like Kantor will more than pay for itself.
“Addition of Kantor will help to create a more optimal droplet size to improve deposition and adhesion to plant surfaces by reducing the number of coarse droplets, he adds. “What’s more, Kantor’s ability to reduce surface tension and promote spreading results in better coverage of target plants and leaf layers, leading to more effective treatment overall.
“This we are seeing more and more of in our field trials programmes, where Kantor is contributing valuable protection and reducing the incidence of disease on the key yield building leaves. In several trials last year, there were statistically significant benefits from the inclusion of Kantor at T1, T2 or both, which often came through in the yield and margin over input costs,” continues Stuart.
Improved curative activity
Where curative fungicide activity comes in to play, it’s also worth leaning on the benefits of Kantor to maximise its effectiveness.
“Whilst fungicides permeate leaf cuticles pretty easily – due to their water solubility – you can speed it up with the right adjuvant. What’s more, Kantor’s unique penetrating ability creates more uptake channels – like increasing the number of lanes on a motorway – so more of the active gets to where it needs to get to in less time.
This will also benefit other components of the tank-mix as Kantor improves the efficiency and effectiveness of all products in the tank.
More information and suppliers
Kantor is approved for use in over 60 crops, where it is designed to optimise the performance of all crop protection products and nutrition in your spray tank.
For more information on label crops, to see our extensive trials results, and for general information on Kantor, please download our latest booklet here.
If you require technical support, or wish to discuss how Kantor may be able to benefit your own situation, please contact Stuart below.
Kantor is available to purchase through Agrii.
Backrow Max is a residual herbicide adjuvant approved for use in an extensive list of crops.
You can find out more about it by downloading our latest brochure here.
If you wish to discuss Backrow Max and how it could potentially help you, please get in touch with Stuart below.
Backrow Max is available to purchase through Agrii.