Adjuvant research

Reducing herbicide input rates while maintaining adequate weed control is on of the most important aims of crop protection. Therefore, lots of factors like tillaging, sowing date of crops and mechanical weed control play an important role, but formulation of herbicides is crucial for the efficacy of active ingredients. To enhance the uptake of leaf-active herbicides, adjuvants can be added to spray solutions to improve wetting of leaf surface, penetration through cuticle and dissolving of the cuticle’s wax layer. In this project, Agnique SBO 10, an ethoxylated soy bean oil adjuvant, is investigated by analysing its chemical composition and its effect on the efficiency of different herbicides by different methods like dose-response studies (evaluation of dry weight), studies with Imaging-PAM (measuring of chlorophyll fluorescence) and SEM (leaf surface analysis).