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By Dr Brian de Villiers
There is a recent trend to rather use multicomponent adjuvants instead of multiple products. Among the various reasons for this are convenience, reduced transport cost and easier storage. We have no problem with multicomponent adjuvants, and Villa even has a few of these products in our adjuvant range. However, it is important to understand the implications and limitations of using some of these products. We will be discussing the buffers and salt adjuvants to explain our standpoint.
Buffers
Various buffers on the South African market contain surfactants in the formulation. The primary function of these products is to reduce the pH of the spray solution, but they also have some retention and droplet spreading properties provided by the surfactant. However, it is important to understand that the space in these formulations is limited,
therefore it usually only contains a small proportion of surfactant. Some of these products were developed for orchard crops where low surfactant rates are often applied. Therefore, the rate of surfactant will probably be way too low for most row crop applications. Always make sure what rate of surfactant is required. If it is more than what
the product supplies, it may be worth your while to rather use separate buffer and surfactant products.
Salt adjuvants
Besides the water conditioner, many salt adjuvants also contain other components in the formulation. These include surfactants, humectants, acids and various others. Firstly, one must ensure that all the components in these products are necessary. For instance, is acidification required for the primary cation-sensitive herbicide as well as for the other
tank-mixture components? Secondly, it is important to ensure that all the components are present at sufficiently high rates. It is pointless to use an adjuvant that has sufficient cation-neutralizing ability but insufficient rates of surfactant or humectant. Thirdly, ensure that none of the components in the adjuvant are antagonistic to any product in the spray solution. Villa always strives to recommend the correct adjuvant active ingredients and rates to ensure efficacy. This can be either a multi-component product or multiple adjuvants.
Villa’s stance
Multi-component products are a convenient way to supply several adjuvant solutions. They have many advantages but also have limitations. When using these products, please make sure that the rates, active ingredients and properties, will be beneficial to the primary crop protection product, without antagonising other spray mixture components. Contact your Villa agronomist for more information about adjuvants and water quality.