ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Weed Management
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2025.1627437
Effect of Pesticide and Other Crop Protection Product Mixtures on Dicamba Volatilization
Provisionally accepted
Renato Nunes Costa1*
Giovanna Gimenes Cotrick Gomes2Matheus Palhano3Henrique Barbosa4Dyrson Abbade Neto3Ramiro Fernando López Ovejero3Edivaldo Domingues Velini1
Caio Antonio Carbonari1- 1College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Protection, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2Bioativa Pesquisas Estratégicas em Biociências, Botucatu, Brazil
- 3Bayer CropScience, São Paulo, Brazil
- 4Bayer CropScience, São José dos Campos, Brazil
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Dicamba is an important tool for managing hard-to-control weeds in Brazil. Its use has increased, especially with the adoption of dicamba-tolerant crops, making the implementation of best management practices essential to ensure safe herbicide application, whether alone or in combination with other products. This study evaluated the volatilization of dicamba (diglycolamine salt – DGA) applied alone or in tank mixtures with glyphosate potassium salt (GK), a volatility reducer (VR), and various commercial crop protection products, over corn straw under controlled conditions. Volatilized dicamba was collected for 24 h at 40 °C and quantified by LC–MS/MS (LOD = 0.09 ng mL⁻¹, LOQ = 0.39 ng mL⁻¹). The VR consistently reduced dicamba vapor losses by up to 90%, regardless of the mixture. Most tank mixes did not increase volatility relative to DGA + GK + VR, except for combinations with glufosinate ammonium and mesotrione + atrazine, which increased volatilization by 49% and 43%, respectively, compared to DGA + GK + VR, though still ~70% lower than dicamba applied alone. These increases were likely related to ammonia release and interactions with amine groups, rather than pH differences. Findings demonstrate that VRs are effective for mitigating dicamba volatilization even in complex mixtures, but certain combinations require caution. Results provide practical guidance for tank-mix decisions and support the adoption of best practices to reduce volatility-related drift in dicamba-based weed control.
Keywords: No-tillage systems, diglycolamine salt, Tank mixture, volatility reducer, Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)
Received: 12 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Costa, Gomes, Palhano, Barbosa, Abbade Neto, Ovejero, Velini and Carbonari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Renato Nunes Costa, College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Protection, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.