LUNAR Soil Surfactant is a non-ionic surfactant designed to be used as a preventative treatment to prevent water repellent conditions in greens, tees, surrounds and other important areas on the golf course. LUNAR amends soil profiles and successfully addresses problems with water movement, water distribution, hydration and drainage in root zones caused by water repellency on mineral surfaces in soil profiles. LUNAR’s blend of leading edge triblock surfactants also provides the professional turfgrass manager with a highly effective tool to improve rootzone quality and productivity during stress conditions. LUNAR promotes the uniform and stable movement, retention and distribution of water and dissolved nutrients to plant roots and ecological communities that reside in this critical portion of the soil profile.

Both triblock surfactants in the LUNAR formulation contain non-polar sites within their molecular architecture that the surfactants use to bond to the water repellent areas on soil particles within the soil profile. Once attached to the non-polar surfaces, negative sites on the surfactants’ molecular structure serve as locations for water molecule attachment (adhesion).
Attachment of water molecules to the surfactants in LUNAR promote hydration to meet the turfgrass plant’s demand for water. This also results in an unobstructed downward flow of water into the unsaturated soil matrix. Infiltration is enhanced as water molecules are attracted to negative sites on soil particle surfaces as well as negative sites on LUNAR surfactants that have attached to nonpolar areas on water repellent areas of the soil matrix. The LUNAR surfactant blend reduces surface tension that enhances penetration, infiltration and contributes to uniform movement of water within the soil profile.

Once water moves into the soil profile, the larger, more complex difunctional copolymer surfactant in the LUNAR formulation also promotes uniform vertical and lateral movement of water and solutes into and through the soil profile (matrix flow).

The standard practice for addressing water-repellent sand root zones is the routine application of non-ionic soil surfactants. Block copolymers have now become the preferred surfactant chemistries because of their effectiveness and plant safety. However, not all surfactants (even block copolymer constructions) are the same as each chemistry produces it’s unique pattern of attachment and hydration on the mineral particle surface. Therefore, the use of “blends” of surfactants has now become an important consideration in the development of newer, more effective turfgrass surfactant formulations.

LUNAR soil surfactant deploys a blend of different but complementary block copolymer surfactant chemistries to prevent problems associated with localized dry spots, poor infiltration of applied water and non-uniform water movement into the root zone (the symptoms of water repellency). LUNAR surfactant chemistries have different molecular constructions, attach differently to non-polar areas on soil particles and form different hydration patters. But when placed in a surfactant formulation together, they perform much better than a single surfactant when treating a soil profile with varying degrees of hydrophobicity.

When incorporated within a comprehensive root zone management program, use of LUNAR’s unique surfactant chemistries will result in:

• Increased water use efficiency
• Uniform movement and availability of water, fertilizers and other water soluble materials into and throughout the rootzone
• Root zones with vastly improved air-to-water ratios
• Reduced moisture stress to turfgrass
• Prevention and treatment applications for localized dry spot and water repellent soils
• Improved drainage
• Improved turf resilience and stress tolerance