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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..

We were recently asked the following question.I am looking to do a final gorse spray before I plant pine seedlings this winter. Which should I use, MSF or Grassmate to ensure that the pine seedlings are not affected? And how long should the gap be before the last use of MSF/Grassmate and planting pine seedlings? Our reply was:Both MSF600 and GrassM..

GrassMate or Triclo - which one should I use?We frequently get asked whether a customer should use Triclo or GrassMate. Well here's some guidance.GrassMate and Triclo are often similar in price and for most of 2021 were the same price. This has happened following changes in the relative cost of certain raw materials.Both GrassMate and Triclo do muc..

How long should it take stuff to die, after you’ve sprayed it?     It depends on three things.   First is the species, size and maturity of the weed involved.  Fast growing species, especially annuals, will die quickly because the herbicide is transported right through their smaller and simpler structures very quickly. Older, larger, and more ma..