ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the use of conventione surfactants in aqueous application of herbicides to weeds. The potential shift in surfactant use with the employment of vegetable oils as carriers for herbicide sprays is also monitored. Surfactants perform a number of different functions in herbicide dispersions. Surfactants are used primarily in aqueous dispersions, where they reduce the surface tension and consequently increase the spreading and adhesion wetting of the weed surface. Depending on the herbicide employed and, of course, the vehicle used in its dispersion as spray, a great many surfactants have found use in herbicide dispersion. Diuron and other substituted urea herbicides were used until 1960 for preplanting and preemergence weed control at planting. Surfactants are needed because whereas some herbicides are soluble in vegetable oils, many are not. In the literature, vegetable oils such as soybean oil are commonly referred to as pesticide dispersants.
