7 soil wetting agents were trialled on a creeping bentgrass green in Sydney, NSW, Australia. The products tested were: Tricure Hydroforce Ultra (full and half rates) Propel A proprietary formulation with plant elicitors H20 Maximizer HydroLink Rapid. The aim was to see how these perform in the field and we looked at the following characteristics relating to soil-wetting agent use. Surface hardness. Does the use of soil-wetting agents affect surface hardness? Soil moisture content. Do these actually affect soil moisture? Disease incidence. Can you use soil surfactants to reduce disease severity or even prevent turfgrass disease? Turf quality. Does the use of soil-wetting agents have any impact on turfgrass quality? The results were as follows: Turf quality Only the Hydroforce Recovery treatment has significantly lower turf quality than the control. Over the 200-day trial period, there are only three occasions where there are significant differences in turf quality. Soil moisture Only the Hydrolink Rapid and Gilba Solutions proprietary formulations have significantly higher moisture contents at 75mm depth than the control. Surface Hardness The Propel, H20 Maximiser and Hydrolink Rapid treatments are the only ones with no significant difference in surface hardness in comparison to the control. Disease incidence After 106 days dollar spot was seen on the plots. The results can be split between treatments that give lower numbers than the control and those that show no difference from the control. The soil wetting agents showing fewer infection centres are Tricure, Hydroforce Ultra, Gilba Proprietary, Propel, and Hydroforce Recovery.

1. 2023 Research into soil wetting
agents. How do they perform?
Cut through the marketing
Useful links
Soil surfactants
Options for soil wetting agents

2. The market for soil-wetting agents for lawns and sports turf is becoming
increasingly cluttered due to the never-ending introduction of products.
This leads to a lot of confusion.
All claim to be the "best" and according to some sales reps can do whatever
you want them to do!

3. The “payoff”
● Ideally you want excellent soil
wettability with no turf damage
● We don’t live in a perfect world so we
can’t always get what we want!

4. For a soil wetting agent to work it need to:
Reduce surface tension
This overcomes surface
water repellency. You can
see this as “beading” at the
surface
Not burn the turf
There isn’t much point in
using a soil wetting agent
if it’s going to torch your
turfgrass!
Nowadays these are less
likely to do this than
when they were first
introduced.
Help uniform water movement
through the soil profile
This is crucial to enable
water to move uniformly
through the soil and
counter the development
of localised dry spots.

5. Other ideal characteristics
Stimulate turf
growth
Have plant health benefits
● Help counter disease
● Stimulate root growth
● Produce better quality turfgrass
● Increase stress tolerance

6. Products tested included:
1. Tricure AD
2. HydroForce Ultra
3. A new proprietary formulation containing plant elicitors
4. Propel
5. Hydroforce Recovery
6. Untreated control
7. HydroForce Ultra at half rates.
8. H20 Maximizer
9. HydroLink Rapid

7. Criteria monitored over 200 days
1. Surface hardness using a Trufirm metre;
2. Soil moisture content using a Spectrum TDR350;
3. Turf Quality. For this trial we use a light box.
4. Dollar spot.

8. Surface
Hardness
● The Propel, H20 Maximiser and Hydrolink
Rapid treatments are the only ones with
no significant difference in surface
hardness in comparison to the control.
● All the others were significantly softer
All the treatments produced a significantly softer surface compared to
the untreated control apart from Propel, H2O Maximizer and Hydrolink
Rapid.

9. Soil moisture
● Only the Hydrolink Rapid and Gilba
Solutions formulation have significantly
higher moisture contents than the
control.
● Hydrolink Rapid also has significantly
higher moisture content than Hydroforce
Recovery and the half rates of
HydroForce Ultra.

10. Turf Quality
● Only the Hydroforce Recovery treatment
(Treatment 5) has significantly lower turf
quality than the control (Treatment 6).
● There is no significant difference between
the turf quality of any of the other
treatments and the control.

11. Dollar spot
The soil wetting agents showing fewest
infection centres are:
Tricure, Hydroforce Ultra, Gilba Proprietary,
Propel, and Hydroforce Recovery.

12. Dollar Spot
● Dollar spot infection can be split between
treatments that give low numbers and
those that show no difference from the
control.
● Gilba Proprietary, Propel, and Hydroforce
Recovery have significantly less dollar
spot than the untreated control
(Treatment 6)
● Bottom figure is number of infection
centres by treatment and plot

13. Some key Findings
● Hydroforce Recovery has significantly lower turf quality than the control.
● There is no significant difference between the turf quality of any of the other treatments
and the control.
● The Propel, H20 Maximiser and Hydrolink Rapid treatments are the only ones with no
significant difference in surface hardness in comparison to the control.
● Only the Hydrolink Rapid and Gilba Solutions proprietary formulation have significantly
higher moisture contents than the control.
● Gilba Proprietary, Propel, and Hydroforce Recovery all have significantly fewer dollar spot
infection centres than the untreated control.

14. The full report
Poster presentation click below

15. Future work -
2023/2024
● Moisture readings will be made at 37mm
and 75mm depths.
● Increased moisture stress.
● The water drop penetration time (WDPT)
test will give us an idea of longevity in the
soil.
Here is The
full soil
wetting
agent report