A review of the effects of humidity, humectants, and surfactant composition on the absorption and efficacy of highly water-soluble herbicides

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It is well known that environmental conditions have an important influence on herbicide efficacy. In particular, the effect of humidity on herbicide uptake has been attributed to changes in cuticle hydration and droplet drying. As early as the 1950s, it was hypothesized that humectants such as glycerol would enhance herbicide uptake by not letting droplets dry, thus maintaining the herbicide in solution, and hence making it available for uptake. Shortly thereafter, evidence was found to support this hypothesis and humectants were used successfully in warm, dry areas to increase herbicide efficacy. However, by the mid-1980s, there was little use of humectants as research on humectants gave way to investigations on the effect of ethylene oxide (EO) content on surfactant performance to improve herbicide uptake and efficacy. While ethoxylated surfactants effectively increase the uptake of both lipophilic and hydrophilic herbicides, the suggestion that long EO chains have humectant properties is misleading, since the studies that led to this suggestion were performed at high humidity, which would prevent rapid droplet drying. Furthermore, current evidence suggests that highly water-soluble, ionic herbicides may be more sensitive to low humidity and rapid drop drying than lipophilic herbicides. Therefore, an overview is presented on the interaction of water-soluble herbicides with surfactants, the cuticle, and humidity, with particular emphasis on the impact of low humidity and humectants on herbicide uptake. It was found that when one focuses on research performed at low humidity the importance of humectants emerges, which is not in keeping with what is now commonly accepted.