15
PSA: A drop of dish soap in my sprayer tank stopped the herbicide from beading up on waxy oak leaves.
I was treating a stand of invasive saplings in a client's Atlanta backyard last Tuesday and the mix just wouldn't stick, so I added maybe a teaspoon of the cheap blue stuff and it coated perfectly, so has anyone else found a better surfactant for this?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
lewis.drew2mo ago
Yeah, read somewhere that a tiny bit of baby shampoo works too. Supposed to be gentle on plants but still breaks the surface tension.
8
dylanbarnes23d ago
Supposed to be gentle on plants" - see, I've actually gone the other way on this one. Had a buddy who used dish soap on his hydrangeas and they got all droopy and sad looking for a week... I mean yeah it breaks the tension but is it really worth stressing the plant out? I'd rather just spray them a few extra times with plain water than risk messing with the leaf coating or whatever... baby shampoo is still soap at the end of the day.
1
wesley_hart2mo ago
Oh man, that's a solid trick. I've been there with waxy holly leaves, just watching the spray roll right off. I keep a little bottle of that same blue soap in my kit now for exactly that. It's cheap and it just works. Tried a fancy horticultural surfactant once and honestly didn't see a difference worth the extra cash.
3