Low volatility auxin herbicide formulations

Abstract

Low volatility dicamba herbicide formulations are described. In some embodiments, concentrate formulations comprising dicamba monoethanolamine salt, dicamba potassium salt, or mixed dicamba salts are provided. In other embodiments, a dicamba salt is combined with a polybasic polymer.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention generally relates to low volatility auxin herbicide formulations.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Auxin herbicides have proven to be effective and highly beneficial for control of unwanted plants. Auxin herbicides include 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), 2,4-DB (4-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)butanoic acid), dichloroprop (2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)propanoic acid), MCPA ((4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)acetic acid), MCPB (4-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)butanoic acid), aminopyralid (4-amino-3,6-dichloro-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid), clopyralid (3,6-dichloro-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid), fluoroxypyr ([(4-amino-3,5-dichloro-6-fluoro-2-pyridinyl)oxy]acetic acid), triclopyr ([(3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyl)oxy]acetic acid), diclopyr, mecoprop (2-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)propanoic acid) and mecoprop-P, dicamba (3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid), picloram (4-amino-3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid), quinclorac (3,7-dichloro-8-quinolinecarboxylic aci...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides low volatility auxin herbicide formulations with low drift that can be used to kill or control the growth of unwanted plants. The formulations contain an auin herbicide component consisting essentially of auin herbicide salts and a polybasic polymer or mixture of polybasic polymers. The formulation is an aqueous solution with a high concentration of the herbicide. The herbicide can be mixed with water to create an application mixture for use on auxin-susceptible plants. The use of the polybasic polymer reduces the volatility and drift of the herbicide. The invention also provides methods for controlling auxin-susceptible plants using the low volatility herbicide formulations.

Problems solved by technology

Volatility and drift problems are commonly associated with auxin herbicides.

Volatile auxin herbicides can, under certain conditions of application, vaporize into the surrounding atmosphere and thereby migrate from the application site to adjacent crop plants, such as soybeans and cotton, where contact damage to sensitive plants can occur.

Prior art solutions to volatility and drift have failed to successfully regulate off-target dicamba movement from the application site.

Problematically however, crop plants such as soybean and cotton or sensitive plants such as vegetables and flowers located in an area wherein CLARITY or BANVEL has been applied can still exhibit symptoms of injury such as leaf cupping, leaf malformation, leaf necrosis, terminal bud kill and / or delayed maturity.

However, the resulting particle sizes are typically not suitable for spray application therefore limiting use to granular drop application.

Microencapsulation in a polymer shell is also known in the art, but the relatively high solubility of dicamba and its salts precludes successful use of that technology in aqueous suspensions and commercial dicamba microencapsulation products have not been developed.

Images