Challenging weather, suboptimal spraying conditions and tank-mix incompatibility can all put added pressure on spraying workload, reducing its efficacy over time. Though these stress factors are often out of the hands of growers, incorporating an adjuvant can help reduce the impact.
Getting high performance from crop protection sprays is vital in keeping yieldrobbing weeds and diseases at bay. However, there are numerous factors that can threaten this, says Stuart Sutherland, technical manager at Interagro. “The past few years have seen sprayer operators dealt a tough hand, with catchy weather windows and heavy workloads often leading to suboptimal conditions for spraying and efficacy.
“In practice, this might mean big, complex mixes in the spray tank or mixing products in cold water, which can make the operation tricky. With products often added via the induction hopper, the issue is that you may not even know there is a mixing problem until you get blocked nozzles.”
While this can be a big problem, Stuart says there is a simple solution – adding Kantor to the tank. It’s unique adjuvant properties deliver a plethora of benefits, unrivalled by any other adjuvant on the market.
A plethora of benefits
Kantor is an innovative activator and special purpose adjuvant in one, which can buffer spray water to pH 6-7, improve tank-mix compatibility, reduce spray drift, and enhance product effectiveness by increasing coverage, adhesion and penetration across plant surfaces. “In fact, it’s the only one-can adjuvant solution on the market that alleviates risk across the entire spraying operation – from tank-mixing, through to spraying and even down to action on target plants,” notes Stuart. “It’s an extremely versatile product. Kantor gives growers the flexibility for complex tank-mixing in a single pass without the risk of crop damage, can keep you spraying, and improves the efficiency and effectiveness of all products in the tank-mix, including herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, PGRs, and nutrition.
So how is this possible? Looking at its tank-mix compatibility benefits, Stuart explains that Kantor enables this through an emulsification agent in the formulation that helps vital components in the tank to mix together properly, even in cold water. Where water for spraying has high pH, there are more than three products in the spray mixture – ie multiple active ingredients – or growers are using low water volumes, product mixing becomes even more problematic.
But, adding Kantor to the spray tank before chemistry conditions the water by lowering pH and creates more optimum conditions for the tank-mix.” Aside from improving stability and compatibility in the spray tank, the improved rainfastness and drift reduction properties of Kantor can help both extend spray windows and keep crop protection where it needs to be for longer. “Kantor enables more precise and targeted applications by significantly reducing the number of <100 micron fine spray droplets which are most susceptible to drift,” explains Stuart. “Crucially, this reduces the risk of off-target damage and environmental contamination, while also providing flexibility in scheduling crop protection applications.”
Kantor also reduces the number of coarse droplets, creating a more optimal droplet size to improve deposition and adhesion to plant surfaces, he adds. “What’s more, Kantor’s ability to reduce surface tension and promote spreading results in better coverage of target plants
and leaf layers, leading to more effective treatment overall.”
But it’s Kantor’s small molecular size compared to most adjuvants that provide unique penetrating power helping active ingredients get to work faster and help make it so versatile, says Stuart.
Tried, tested, trusted
Easy mixing, improved active ingredient stability
Extensive testing over the years shows adding Kantor to the spray tank before adding chemicals, speeds up the mixing process and helps traditionally incompatible mixtures to blend together. This is perfectly demonstrated by Stuart in the video, below –
Trials at Eurofins in 2022 proved Kantor’s ability to aid complex micronutrient mixtures to dissolve and remain in solution – with less flocculation and sedimentation – compared with when the mix was used alone. “This meant that plants were more likely to fully absorb the products,” says Stuart.
Keeps you spraying
Work at Silsoe Spray Applications Unit has shown Kantor reduces the number of drifty droplets, which we hear frequently from growers, is a really noticeable benefit.
Enhanced coverage benefits re-enforced at Rothamsted
The research conducted by CHAP and Rothamsted in 2023 used brilliant blue dye and videometer lab imaging to visualise the impact of Kantor on spray retention and distribution on pea and wheat leaves. The images show Kantor having the greatest positive impact on spray deposition, compared to the tracer and water control treatment.
For protectant fungicides, this brings crucial disease benefits, which we are seeing more and more of in trials as varieties break down.
Higher uptake into plants
Kantor’s ability to aid the penetration of active ingredients into plants has too been examined in various studies, including at Wageningen University where researchers used UV tracer dye to look at penetration. They found that Kantor delivered higher concentrations of crop protection to the leaf cuticle – compared with when these products were used alone – resulting in significantly higher uptake into plants.
Adjuvant benefits can sometimes be difficult to see in trials, as products are often applied in optimal conditions with knapsack sprayers.
But in this Birds Eye pea trial below, the weed control benefits from adding Kantor to Basagran were clearly obvious.
Flexibility for success
Looking at how the combined benefits affect the overall plant health picture, trials and farmer feedback show Kantor adds valuable efficacy, benefiting weed, disease and lodging control in a wide range of crops, notes Stuart.
“We invest heavily in trials every year – you can download our new Kantor booklet by scanning the QR code below to see some of the latest results. “In trials looking at septoria infection in winter wheat, Kantor has significantly reduced infection levels, compared to when fungicides
were used alone. Looking at how this stacks up financially, we’re seeing upwards of an additional £21.50/ha margin over input cost.
“A similar effect was seen in oilseed rape trials, where adding Kantor was found to reduce light leaf spot infection levels, resulting in an additional £134/ha margin over input cost.”
Positive results have also been seen in reducing ramularia infection in barley and fusarium infections in winter wheat, making it a truly versatile product, says Stuart.
“With challenging seasons becoming the ‘norm’, aids like adjuvants are going to be vital for getting the most from crop protection and Kantor is the only adjuvant that helps you mitigate the risks across the entire spraying operation, giving the flexibility for success.”
