Can water quality be addressed sufficiently with adjuvants?

By Brian de Villiers

August 2021

Water is used to apply crop protection products (CPP) because it is the most affordable and convenient carrier. However, water has various properties that often reduce the efficacy of many CPP. These include chemical properties such as dissolved antagonistic cations, incorrect pH and buffering capacity. However , it also includes physical properties such as surface tension. There are various adjuvants that address these problems. However, the important question is if these adjuvants address these challenges sufficiently.

Adjuvants that address water quality

Villa has always encouraged the use of high quality ammonium sulphate adjuvants to address hard and brackish water. We have further encouraged the standard use of these products because water sensitive herbicides are often enhanced by ammonium sulphate, even at low antagonistic cation levels. We have recommended the use of buffers to reduce the effect of alkaline hydrolysis of certain insecticides. The use of surfactants and oils are also recommended to reduce the surface tension of spray droplets. We therefore believe that all the necessary tools are available to address the most important water quality issues.

Is it enough?

The most important question is not whether there are adjuvants available to address these issues, but rather if these adjuvants have enough active ingredient to address the full scale of the problems. Furthermore, it is important that the adjuvant label makes provision for extreme water quality. It is crucial to know that the ammonium sulphate adjuvant that is recommended has enough active ingredient to address the vast majority of water sources. This includes the extremely hard and brackish borehole water that is often used to apply water sensitive products like glyphosate and clethodim. The buffers that are used with insecticides must have sufficient active ingredient to deal with the most severe cases of buffering capacity. Surfactants and oil adjuvants must reduce the surface tension adequately to ensure minimal droplet bounce and adequate spray droplet spreading. Villa is confident that the adjuvants that we recommend, address all of these water quality properties sufficiently. We are sure that our products contain enough active ingredient and that our label recommendations cater for even the most extreme water quality.

Villa’s stance

Villa has developed adjuvants that address all of the abovementioned water quality issues. We have also extended our adjuvant labels to accommodate some of the poorest water sources in South Africa. It is vitally important that one is confident that the adjuvant that is used addresses water quality sufficiently to restore the activity of the CPP to an optimal level. Don’t use an adjuvant unless you are sure that it has enough active ingredient to address water quality issues sufficiently. Water quality should not be a problem if the correct adjuvants with enough active ingredient are applied.
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