Reduce disease, mix with ease

Improve efficacy and safen tank mixes with Kantor

With temperatures now rising across the country, and disease bubbling away in some early drilled winter cereal varieties, optimising the performance of fungicides could be vital, particularly where applications may become delayed and curative activity is required. In sub-optimal conditions, fungicide sprays will benefit from the addition of activator adjuvant Kantor to optimise protectant & curative activity, whilst also improving the compatibility and safety of large tank mixtures that are common this time of the year.  

Why fungicide performance can be improved

From a practical perspective, fungicides (and other plant protection products) do not always perform as expected. Not just because of resistance, but because of depletion and deposition factors that limit efficacy.

Spray tank antagonism impacts efficacy and crop safety

Only crop protection products fully dissolved in the spray tank can perform in the field. Whilst tank-mixing chemicals offers flexibility, saves time and may increase pesticide effectiveness, an incompatible mix resulting from chemical or physical incompatibility can cause downtime, antagonism (as sometimes the case between prothioconazole formulations with chlorothalonil), damage to the crop and reduce efficacy in the field. Incompatibility can be caused by physical or chemical properties, cold temperatures, incorrect mixing order, water source. 

Spray drift impacts deposition

Spray drift is a risk to every application and occurs when ultra fine droplets are carried away by air movement. Lifting the boom, perhaps due to uneven ground, so nozzle tips are 20cm above the recommended height of 50cm, can double spray drift. Drift can be minimised with appropriate nozzles but they do impact spray coverage on the target due to an increase in droplet size.

Poor coverage

The spreading and retention of crop protection products is critical for distribution on leaf/ear surfaces. However, water (95% of the spray solution) beads on waxy surfaces and is prevented from spreading out due to high surface tension. This not only leads to poor coverage across the leaf/ear surface, it can also be lost due to run-off, particularly on vertical leaves/ears. Poor coverage is even more problematic on hairy leaves/spikelets which can suspend the droplet above the surface preventing contact.

When it comes to protectant fungicides such as chlorothalonil and folpet, coverage is crucial but often compromised without the use of a suitable tank-mix adjuvant to reduce surface tension and facilitate full spreading across the leaf. This is because protectants have no mobility and therefore offer zero protection to the parts of the leaf not covered. Whilst in-can adjuvancy can help, it is often insufficient as the adjuvant rate is fixed by the fungicide rate per hectare, whereas tank-mix adjuvants can be adjusted to fit the water volume being used.

Slow uptake

With the exception of protectant fungicides that are adsorbed to the outside of leaf surfaces to protect it, systemic fungicides need to penetrate the leaf cuticle and living tissue inside. The cuticle is on the upper and lower sides of the leaf to protect it from water loss and is the biggest barrier to water soluble compounds. Where growers do find themselves in a curative disease situation, fast penetration of an appropriate fungicide through leaf cuticles will be crucial so it gets to work as quickly as possible.

Reduce disease, mix with ease – use Kantor

Approved for use in over 50 crops, including cereals, oilseed rape, sugar beet, beans, peas and many vegetable crops, Kantor is a unique activator adjuvant based on the active alkoxylated triglycerides, offering improved fungicide efficacy (as well as improvement across the tank mix), plus improved tank mix compatibility and crop safety.

Kantor improves tank mix compatibility and crop safety

Kantor is the only plant protection tank mix adjuvant with a self-microemulsifying compatibility aid which enables tank mix components to dissolve and remain thermodynamically stable in the spray tank. This reduces antagonism between products, increasing the bioavailability of active ingredients and also improves safety to the crop. 

Kantor improves coverage

Kantor reduces the number of fine spray droplets prone to drift, improving both deposition and coverage. Kantor also provides excellent spreading and retention, critical for the distribution of fungicide across the leaf and ear. It can therefore play an essential role in increasing biological efficacy, particularly in high disease pressure situations.

Kantor improves uptake

Kantor can speed up the penetration of fungicide into leaf cuticles. This can help fungicides get to work faster and is therefore particularly valuable in curative situations, with older chemistry and with fungicides such as prothioconazole, that are metabolically activated.

For optimal performance

While the addition of an adjuvant may seem like a belt and braces approach, the sums do add up. Kantor can more than pay for itself, having produced an average yield response of +0.27 t/ha in 49 cereal fungicide trials over the last 7 years (- range of timings and products 2012-2019).

Advantages of Kantor

• Application versatility resulting from improved tank mix compatibility of large complex tank mixtures, buffering of water with high pH and anti-drift action
• Excellent crop safety makes Kantor the perfect adjuvant to improve the performance of plant protection products whilst protecting safety to the crop
• Improved performance across the tank mix