New Tank Mix Technology is Boosting Kill of Tough Weeds

“SATCHUR8™ is part of the mix because it increases the efficacy and longevity of the products we apply.”

Harvard, Illinois, Feb. 2, 2026 -- Dave Geils is a third-generation row crop farmer living near Harvard, Ill., who farms “several thousand” acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in Illinois and southern Wisconsin. He says he’s tried a lot of products through the years that were long on promises and short on results. Consequently, he moves slowly and is keen on results. So it was with SATCHUR8, a new application technology from Planet Earth Agronomy. 

“The first year was on a trial basis,” he remembers. “Larry (Larry Fiene of Planet Earth Agronomy) came to us with plot data, and so we walked some plots, and it looked good. So we tried it on a limited basis the first year and it worked.” 

An understatement? Perhaps. Since that point, Geils says they’ve used it on every single pass, whether it’s pre-emerge, post-emerge or in-season fungicide applications. “This is our third year of using SATCHUR8,” he says. “It’s part of the mix because it increases the efficacy and longevity of the products we apply. It’s a very inexpensive product that makes all the other things work the way they need to.”

Fiene is a field agronomist and Planet Earth Agronomy’s Founder and CEO. His team is bringing the new application technology to crop production, and he says it coming to agriculture from the human healthcare sector, where it’s been used in cancer patients to cement cancer drugs to tumors for better control. 

“The power of SATCHUR8 is in its trillions of microscopic filaments that stick to a surface like VELCRO when applied,” he explains. “So, in crop protection, it can hold the active ingredient it’s mixed with on the leaf surface for a longer period of time. It won't wash off and won't dry up and blow off the surface.” For herbicides, fungicides and insecticides needing contact to do their work, this unique property means longer-lasting activity and better efficacy.

“It also makes pre-emerge herbicides work better,” he adds. “Residual weed control is lasting longer because the active ingredient is being retained in the upper soil profile longer.” In side-by-side trials, the SATCHUR8 tank mix lasted four to six weeks longer than the standard herbicide application.

“We've been struggling with herbicides on water hemp, like everybody else has,” says Jim Webb, crop advisor with Conserv FS in northern Illinois. “SATCHUR8 helps our pre-emerge applications work longer, and it helped our post-emerge to actually kill weeds in tougher conditions.” He sees a faster kill when SATCHUR8 is in the mix, especially with contacts such as LIBERTY and ROUNDUP. 

“It’s just a better, quicker kill,” he says, adding that he feels SATCHUR8 has helped restore the kill rate of these products on those tougher weeds substantially. “Typically, we had been getting on 70 percent or so, but with SATCHUR8, we’re getting back up to 95 to 98 percent.”

Geils says they’ve been all in on SATCHUR8, using it for pre-emerge, post-emerge and in-season fungicide applications as well. “We have been 100% since we started using it,” he says. “You know, a lot of fungicides only have a two-week window and it, it seems with SATCHUR8 we're stretching that window, maybe another week for sure.” Whatever sort of application it is, Geils says the product is earning its keep on his acres. 

“Some of our newer sprayers have LED lighting, and in the twilight of the evening, you can see how the product falls from the nozzle to the plant,” he says. “It goes right down to the leaves. When we use SATCHUR8, we’re being responsible with the environment. Because it sticks to the plant, and it makes the products do what they're supposed to do.”