Summer 2021 is turning into a tough one for some of you. From coast to coast, we’re seeing growers face unprecedented heat and drought—and for a lot you, that means dry out. Even without low precipitation and irrigation restrictions, it’s tough to get moisture back to optimal levels once media dries out.
Even minimal water repellence in your media impairs water’s movement. That affects plant growth, development, quality, and yield. Puddling and runoff increase. Infiltration rates drop. Nutrients and plant protection products take the path of least resistance and leach out. Extra irrigation only leads to increased costs. That’s where wetting and conservation agents, also known as surfactants, can help.
Why soil becomes water repellent
Many different issues can bring on water repellence. But the problem traces back to organic molecules called “hydrophobes.” You may notice that word looks a lot like hydrophobia, the irrational fear of water. While these hydrophobe molecules aren’t afraid of moisture, they’re definitely not attracted to it.
Hydrophobes get released in soil and other media for several reasons, including microorganism activity, organic matter, and decomposing plant tissue. When this release happens for whatever the reason, hydrophobes create a thin waxy layer around soil particles.
As a result, waxy soil particles repel water instead of attracting it, and water molecules fail to bond with soil. Instead, water attracts other water molecules, creating high surface tension. That stops water droplets from spreading and infiltrating your media as they should.
How wetting and conservation agents work
Wetting agents are based on substances called surfactants. When surfactants dissolve in liquid, they reduce that liquid’s surface tension. Mixed with water, these active ingredients in wetting agents do two things: They reduce cohesion between water molecules and increase adhesion between water molecules and soil particles. Soil stops repelling water and bonds with it instead.
How H2Pro and H2Flo wetting agents can help.
Quality wetting agents like our H2Pro and award-winning H2Flo products can benefit your growing operation in multiple ways. For starters, some reports show that improved water management associated with quality surfactants can cut more than 20% off a grower's total water usage. That’s a big bump anytime, but especially these days.
In addition, these wetting agents help prevent loss of fertilizers, pesticides and PGRs to over-leaching. They also prevent wilting during and after production and help delay wilt stress in retail environments—earning you accolades from customers dealing with heat and stress on their lots.
While many surfactants offer two to three months of effectiveness, our H2Pro works up to 12 months—through multiple wet-dry cycles. You can choose liquid or granular formulas and customize application rates based on your specific media and production practices. Your ICL Territory Manager can tell you even more ways our wetting agents can help.
What we’re learning from wetting agent research
As a global leader in specialty fertilizers and plant protection products, we’re constantly investing in research and innovation to gain greater understanding, create better products, and help growers like you succeed.
Last fall, we gave you a behind-the-scenes look at pioneering ICL surfactant research. While previous research in this area focused on how surfactants help growers improve water distribution and retention in soil, this work shifted the focus to how wetting agents affect plant physiology itself.
COVID-19 shutdowns initially slowed the work of Ph.D. researcher Vasileios “Billy” Giannakopoulos. But Billy’s now completed his experiments and published his research. We’re excited about the results, including four key findings that augment the benefits above:
- surfactants can increase soil water availability
- surfactants can increase transpiration up to 13%
- surfactants can increase drought resilience in plants
- surfactants can increase plant growth up to 20%
Interested in learning more about how ICL wetting agents can help your growing operation now and in the days to come? Give us call or send us an email. We understand the challenges you’re facing—and we have solutions. Let us help you grow and succeed.