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The ABC of Ragwort Control Ragwort is not a weed that lets you get away with a spur-of-the moment approach.   There are two reasons for that.  First is that this normally biennial plant has the ability to morph into a very hard-to-kill multi-crown perennial if it’s been mowed, slashed or ineffectually sprayed.  And each mature plant can produce 2..

Can K-Mate Humic Acid (Potassium Humate) improve Nitrogen efficiency? In the race to feed a growing global population, nitrogen (N) has become the superstar of plant nutrition. It’s the key to bumper crop yields and has led to a surge in urea fertilizer use, making up a whopping 70% of global agricultural nitrogen application. However, this surge ..

Glyphosate, Halox 100EC and GA 200 – Which one to Use Where? We often get asked which of these three herbicides to use and where to use them.   Rainbow & Brown Glyphosate 360, Glyphosate 540 and Granny (high strength soluble granular Glyphosate) Glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide, is one of the most widely used chemicals globally. It is kno..

Spray Safe the Smarter Way   Spraying can be a hit-and-miss job at times. Having the certainty of knowing where chemicals have been applied, or the ability to detect spray drift by using a spray marker dye makes the process safer and more cost-effective too.   Rainbow & Brown sell FIL spray marker dyes which are high-quality additives that deli..

Unlocking the Secrets of Soil: A Beginner’s Guide to the Art of Soil Conditioning   Generally, improving soil depends on the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of the soil that you are working with. Exchange capacity is merely a measure of the capacity of the soil to exchange nutrients.   Whether the CEC is large or small, it affects the soil’s cap..

Most liquid herbicides handle NZ winters without issue, but some formulations will separate, crystallise, or coagulate if they get too cold. The safe default is to keep liquid products above 4°C. Dry formulations like granules and WDGs have no temperature restriction but need to stay dry. Vegetable oil-based crop oils: keep above 4°C Most liq..

Does Water Quality Affect Herbicides? A simple question and a resounding yes.  For instance, most of you know that some herbicides, glyphosate being one of them, lose activity in the soil but that also applies to soil particles in the water.  So if you are dragging water from a pond, even if you are filtering you need to be careful that the filter..

When selecting a herbicide there are many factors to consider.  What weeds will it kill?  Is it pasture friendly?  Does it harm clover?  Often you might end up with 2 or 3 options that all might do the job so how do you choose?  Well the one thing that often gets overlooked is the price.  Many might look at the 20L cost but this doesn’t really he..

On the back of many international and successful trials, there had been little done in New Zealand on the benefits of humic acid and fulvic acid, especially when used in conjunction with Nitrogen. NZ trials were done back in 2012 by Phillip Schofi eld, Nicky Watt and Max Schofield testing the benefits of using humic acid granules (potassium humate/..

New Product – K-MATE 100% Soluble Potassium Humate/Humic Acid What is K-Mate? Potassium humate is an organic-based soil conditioner that feed the microbes in the soil.  It contains highly active humic accod and fulvic acid and is compatible with most other fertilisers. Soluble Humate Formulation Some of you might have tried humate and fulvates..

Which Rainbow & Brown Herbicides are Grass and Clover Friendly? Below is a handy reference table to show which of our products are safe to use on pasture and / or clover and which have some residual effect which might affect replanting. Note: in some circumstances and at certain times of the year or at the rates required to control some weeds the..

Controlling Weeds in New Pasture This one can be tricky as many of the herbicides used for general weed control in established pasture are just too tough on new pasture and you risk damaging your new pasture. Whether grass weeds or broadleaf weeds they can be either annual or perennial. It is really important that you are on top of perennial weed..