- Does ammonium sulfate always work well in combination with glyphosate?
- What are the advantages of solid adjuvants over the popular sulfate?
In the application of a total herbicide after harvest, we should not rely solely on the action of the active substance "solo". In fact, the herbicidal effectiveness is largely due to the adjuvant agents. Here, we basically have two solutions to choose from – we support the substance itself with ammonium sulphate or an adjuvant. Which solution will work better?
The effectiveness of the treatment is determined by the amount of active substance that reaches the target site. This makes supporting the active substance even more crucial.
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Post-harvest cultivation without tillage. What solutions do farmers have?
Adjuvant better than sulfate, but not for everyone
The advantage of conventional adjuvants over ammonium sulphate is, among other things, that they are able – depending on the specificity of a given product – to reduce surface tension, facilitate the penetration of substances into the plant, but also to moisten the plant and increase the concentration of the working liquid on the sprayed surface.
However, a word of caution here – we should not use oil adjuvants together with glyphosate, because these, although they have most of the features of similar products, act in such a way that the applied glyphosate is bound in one place and does not reach the remaining parts of the plant.
Ammonium sulfate is not an adjuvant
Ammonium sulfate should be dosed at 5 kg/ha during combined application with glyphosate. Its feature is that, among other things, it will reduce water hardness and will also support the penetration of the active substance into plant cells. What is important, however, is that it will not retain the working fluid on the plant. It is also unable to reduce the level of evaporation and does not prevent runoff from the plant. Ammonium sulfate can work well as a supporting agent, although it is not a full-fledged adjuvant, as it only plays the most basic roles related to supporting the applied substance.
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The stubble fields are green with weeds. How to cope?
We do not add ammonium sulfate if we are fighting couch grass.
In some cases, ammonium sulfate will not be an ideal solution. When is it better not to apply it? We can mention, for example, the control of couch grass. And why? Well, ammonium sulfate has a strong stinging effect. Theoretically, this seems to be a desirable property in the case of weed control. But not in this case. In fact, this applies not only to couch grass, but also to other stolon weeds. Ammonium sulfate with glyphosate will work in such a way that it will very quickly dry out the green organs of the plant. And this means that transport within it will be disturbed. The problem is that in such a system, the applied active substance will not reach (or only in a small amount) the underground parts of the plant. What will the effect be? Well, visually it will be very nice, because the weeds will be quickly damaged, after a few days we will observe their drying out. But drying out does not equal control. Since the external parts of the plant were quickly damaged, they stopped transporting the supplied active substance to the stolons shortly after the treatment. In the case of using ammonium sulfate with glyphosate to eliminate couch grass, for example, the effect will be the same as if we had driven a disk harrow into the plantation immediately after the treatment. Glyphosate will not reach the runners in the right amount.
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Fight horsetail in the stubble field
Glyphosate, in order to reach all parts of the plant, must be properly absorbed beforehand. Here again, adjuvants will have an advantage, except that it is very important that they can loosen the cuticular layer of the plant. This layer is a natural barrier. Good adjuvants cope with this task quite well and the active substance has an easier way to get inside the plant.
Conditioners can lower the pH of water
At the same time, let's be careful with water conditioners. Glyphosate does not like acidic environments, it works in completely different ranges than e.g. fungicides or insecticides (in higher pH ranges). Therefore, implementing all-in-one products is not necessarily a good solution.
Returning to the issue of differences between ammonium sulfate and adjuvants, it is also worth noting that implementing appropriate adjuvants allows for a reduction in the dose of glyphosate. Here, however, let us add that it is particularly important to determine the "appropriate" adjuvants, because not all of them are ideal for use with glyphosate.
Generally, in most cases, an adjuvant, but a good quality one, preferably dedicated to glyphosate (or simply to herbicides), will be better than ammonium sulfate. The latter, of course, has its advantages, but it generally loses to the adjuvant. Especially since the market for these products is already quite well developed, and the quality of the products themselves is getting better.
