Most of TourTurf®’s liquid fertiliser products contain the organic LPT Leaf Penetrant Technology, and it's available as a stand-alone product in order that you have to worry less about nutrient waste, nutrient run off, and ideal application timing. TourTurf® LPT is designed to ensure maximum foliar uptake of liquid fertilisers, biostimulants and other turf management products. The product can be used in many situations where fast and efficient uptake of foliar products is critical to improve absorption and use of nutrients applied, and has excellent tank mix properties. How does this technology work, and why is it important to optimise nutrient uptake?
Many greenkeepers are utilising foliar fertilisers and spoon-feed the turfgrass every 10–14 days to achieve desirable and consistent results. This is being achieved by lowering water rates and using products containing spreading wetting agents to maximise leaf contact to ensure the nutrient up take efficiency.
In addition, nutrient absorption can occur only when the nutrient molecule is in solution, and therefore higher temperatures increase the rate at which droplets dry out and crystallise, allowing less time and limiting nutrient absorption. This can be problematic when the climatic temperatures are higher and the leaf dries out quickly.
TourTurf® LPT Leaf Penetrant Technology is designed to ensure maximum leaf uptake of liquid fertilisers, biostimulants and other materials.
This video compares the effect of spraying a stand-alone 1% Seaweed solution with a 1% Seaweed solution + 1% TourTurf® LPT.
You can see that when just applying seaweed on its own, no matter how much spray is applied, the product will always form droplets on the leaf surface, never providing full coverage.
Compare this to spraying with TourTurf® LPT added as just 1% of the tank mix, and you can see that even after only 1 spray, the leaf is given almost complete coverage!
It prevents the solution from forming droplets on the leaf surface, which allows the product to cover the leaf evenly.
TourTurf® LPT includes humectant technology.
The humectant used is the natural polymer lignosulphonate derived from lignin. It comes from a natural resource in wood processing and is reused as part of the circular economy.
The humectant technology enables LPT to resist drying even after the aqueous spray solution has evaporated under high-temperature conditions. This is achieved as the humectant polymers are hygroscopic (water absorbing), which keeps nutrients in water-soluble form by drawing enough air bound moisture to keep the nutrients in a soluble form. This continues after the water within the applied foliar application has evaporated. These nutrients are free to diffuse and penetrate leaves and allow a stable and constant release of nutrients into the leaves.
Not only does TourTurf® LPT contain humectant, but it also contains organic facilitators. Those act as complexing agent for foliar nutrients, ensuring efficient uptake, and produce stable complexes over a wide pH range. This makes TourTurf® LPT the ideal tank mix partner with other nutritional products.
TourTurf® LPT also contains a 100% organic spreader. It alters the water surface tension, allowing droplets to spread over a larger surface area. This ensures complete coverage of the leaf and aids the spray to penetrate the plant cuticula. A larger surface area and increased penetration improves uptake by the plant, increasing the efficiency of the product.
Untreated and LPT treatments were mixed and UV dye added to improve visualisation of leaf uptake.