Why should I use pre-emergent adjuvants this autumn?

Right place, right time: pre-emergent adjuvants as part of a ‘marginal gains’ approach to grassweed seed management

Are you facing the challenge of ryegrass or blackgrass this autumn? Consider integrating pre-emergent adjuvants – like Adhere – into your programme. It has been proven to improve control by up to 5% when used in combination with pre-emergent residual stacks.

Italian ryegrass is competitive. A population of only 5 plants per square metre will reduce yields by 5%. Herbicide resistance is present in some Italian rye-grass populations, with problematic hotspots widespread across the UK. Ryegrass produces more seeds per plant than black grass, making it particularly competitive in winter wheat and winter oilseed rape, therefore a high level of control is crucial.

Pre-emergent herbicide applications often come with a compromise: seedbeds are often less than ideal and spray days are limited and time critical. With Adhere, you can increase your forward speed, to increase the area covered by the sprayer without compromising efficacy.

Why should you use a pre-emergent residual herbicide adjuvant?

Using an adjuvant such as Adhere with your pre-emergent herbicide has a number of benefits:

Improves drift control, allowing a more even coverage of soil and protection of field margins. Pre-emergent applications are typically prone to drift because you are spraying bare soil without any crop biomass to capture droplets.
Increases absorption of the herbicide onto soil particles
Keeps your pre-emergent herbicide where it needs to be, in the upper soil profile, ensuring that weeds can take up the herbicide via roots or shoots
Reduces leaching
Improves crop safety. Trials that were deliberately irrigated with 25 mm after a pre-emergent application on oilseed rape showed that Adhere helped protect roots and shoot biomass compared with application without an adjuvant.

What makes Adhere different to other pre-emergent adjuvants?

Adhere is a clean label adjuvant product with a unique formulation that includes Rosin & Resin esters as tackifiers. They are low molecular weight compounds derived from pine resin that increase adhesion. The structure consists of 2 abietic acid groups joined together with a tri-ethylene glycol bridge, which ensures a liquid formulation with maximum adhesion.

Adhere is also kinder to the environment than paraffinic oils as it is derived from 98% renewable sources.