Adding a wetter/penetrant to your spray tank provides several benefits:
- Penetration
Improved penetration into the plant, especially if the plant surface is waxy or dusty. This happens because the wetter reduces the surface tension of the water portion of the spray mix, and so makes it effectively "wetter".
- Uptake
Better uptake of the spray solution by the plant. We rely on the target's biological activity to translocate the herbicide to all parts of the plant, and a wetter will help compensate when that activity is less than ideal through stress, etc.
- Boost Performance
Wetter generally boost herbicide performance, particularly against the harder-to-kill species. This can mean that you will be able to get a more consistent kill across a range of species, and so will not need to use the highest herbicide application rate just because a few tougher weeds are present. The wetter can, therefore, save you money, especially when spraying out pasture.
- Rain Risk
Adding a wetter will reduce the rain-risk period after spraying. How much it is reduced depends on several variable factors (target species characteristics, growing conditions, etc.), but a typical effect would be to reduce the rain risk period from say 4 hours to just one hour or even less.
We have three types of wetter/penetrants:
- SuperWetter
The organosilicone SuperWetter is essential when spraying woody-stemmed plants, especially Gorse. However, it is not the best product to use for pasture and general weed spraying. user SuperWetter only when it is specified in the direction for your target species.
- SprayWetter
The general-purpose SprayWetter is better for all other situations where SuperWetter is not specified. In particular, for pasture and general weed spraying. SprayWetter is less expensive and actually performs better as well. It is just not suitable for the woody brushweeds.
- Foam Crusher
Foam Crusher is an organosilicone based defoamer agent. These are products that are added to herbicide and pesticide mixes to reduce the amount of foaming. Although mainly used by the helicopter boys (and girls) to allow them to fill up and get spraying quickly, there are plenty of people boom spraying that have the same issues, so they too are using anti-foaming agents.
If you still aren't sure which one is best for your situation, call Rainbow & Brown and we'll discuss it further with you.
