In agriculture, the mixing of pesticides in tanks is a common practice. However, it is necessary to previse possible physical-chemical implications of this practice, which may affect the efficiency of the treatments performed. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the addition of acaricide to insecticidal spray mixtures on the formation of spray droplets and the interaction with citrus leaves. The experimental design was totally randomized, in a (2 × 3 + 1) factorial scheme for seven treatments. Factor A corresponded to the spray mixture used (isolate or in the mixture). Factor B corresponded to the insecticides tested (lambda-cyhalothrin + thiamethoxam, phosmet, and imidacloprid) and the control consisted of a spray mixture with spirodiclofen only. Nine replications were performed for characterization of the spray droplet size spectrum and four replications for the analysis of the surface tension and the contact angle. The mixture of pesticides showed positive results in terms of application safety. The addition of acaricide to insecticide spray mixtures reduced the surface tension and contact angle of droplets on the adaxial surface of orange leaves. There was an increment in volume median diameter (VMD), a significant reduction in the volume of droplets with drift-sensitive size and improvement in the uniformity of droplet size. Therefore, the addition of acaricide to an insecticide spray mixture positively influenced spray droplet formation and the interaction with citrus leaves providing better coverage and droplet size fractions with an appropriate size for safe and efficient application.

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the selectivity of nicosulfuron, alone and in combinations, applied in post-emergence (V4) of glyphosate and sulfonylurea tolerant (RR/STS) soybean. The experiments were conducted in 2015/16 and 2016/17, in Piracicaba – state of São Paulo (SP). In 2016/17, the experiment was also conducted in Palotina – state of Paraná (PR). The experiment was a randomized block design, with four repetitions and 16 treatments, with combinations of nicosulfuron, glyphosate, chlorimuron, sulfometuron and cloransulam, applied alone or in tank mixture. Crop injury and variables related to agronomic performance were evaluated. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were compared by the Tukey test. The results obtained are significant in the positioning of herbicides in RR/STS soybean, since in the five experiments, all the treatments were selective, except for glyphosate + sulfometuron which reduced the yield of a cultivar (CD 2630 RR/STS) in the 2015/16 season.