Super Spreading Silicone Agricultural Surfactant

Super Spreading Silicone Agricultural Surfactant is a trisiloxane super-spreading surfactant developed specifically for turfgrass, ornamental, and nursery production applications — a distinct performance environment from row-crop field spraying, where the target problems are localized dry spot (LDS) in turf, uneven dew and wax coverage on ornamental foliage, and the dense, overlapping canopy structure typical of container nursery stock. At 0.1% v/v it reduces surface tension to approximately 21 mN/m and produces a contact angle below 8° on a hydrophobic reference surface, giving it enough spreading intensity to correct these specific coverage challenges.

Localized dry spot is a well-documented turf management problem caused by hydrophobic organic matter accumulating in the thatch and upper soil profile, which repels irrigation and rainfall and creates chronic dry, stressed patches even under otherwise adequate watering programs. This surfactant is applied as a soil-penetrant treatment at 0.05–0.1% v/v through irrigation or sprayer application to break this hydrophobicity, allowing water to move uniformly through the root zone rather than running off or pooling around dry pockets.

On ornamental and nursery foliage, many popular landscape and container species — boxwood, holly, conifers, and waxy-leaved tropicals — present the same hard-to-wet cuticle challenge seen in agricultural weed control, but the application goal here is uniform pesticide or foliar nutrient coverage across dense, overlapping canopies rather than herbicide translocation. The product's super-spreading action ensures fungicide and insecticide sprays reach interior canopy foliage that upright, less spreading sprays would miss, which is particularly important for disease management in humid, densely-planted nursery blocks.

Because turf and ornamental production often involves more frequent, lower-volume applications than field crop spraying, this surfactant is formulated to remain effective and non-phytotoxic at repeated closely-spaced intervals, and is compatible with the fungicides, insecticides, and plant growth regulators most commonly used in turf and nursery management programs, including DMI fungicides, strobilurins, and PGRs such as trinexapac-ethyl.

The product is low-foaming and suitable for both large-area turf boom sprayers and the smaller backpack and handgun sprayers common in nursery and landscape maintenance operations.