What is the difference between glufosinate and glyphosate?

The use of pesticides in agricultural cultivation has become unavoidable, and today there is a great variety of pesticides, with specialized pesticides available for various common crop pests and diseases. Many farmer friends, when using pesticides, always fail to distinguish between glufosinate and glyphosate; the two names are very similar, and without a detailed understanding the probability of mixing them up is very high. So where do the differences between glufosinate and glyphosate lie?

1. The differences between glufosinate and glyphosate

Glufosinate is a broad-spectrum contact-kill non-selective herbicide, with characteristics such as a broad weed-killing spectrum, low toxicity, high activity and good environmental compatibility; this chemical was first developed by the former German company Agrolinz (later part of Bayer) in the 1980s; while glyphosate belongs to the glycine class and is the effective active chemical component in many widely used herbicides. The two are not the same, and glufosinate contains no glyphosate-related components. Glufosinate is mainly used for annual and even perennial weeds in the vast majority of farmland, while glyphosate is mainly used widely in rubber, mulberry, tea, orchards and sugarcane fields.

In addition, compared with glyphosate, glufosinate acts quickly, and some weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate can also be controlled with this chemical. Glyphosate is actually a general term for a large class of herbicides, including sodium salt, ammonium salt, isopropylamine salt, potassium salt and other types, among which the sodium salt is already rarely used. Because glufosinate rapidly deactivates and degrades in soil and is of low toxicity to non-target organisms, transgenic technology can be used to make crops resistant to glufosinate, thereby enabling glufosinate to selectively kill weeds without harming the crops.

The mechanism of action of glyphosate is to inhibit enolpyruvylshikimate phosphate synthase, blocking protein synthesis; the mechanism of action of glufosinate is ammonium accumulation contact-kill, inhibiting glutamine synthesis; glyphosate generally takes 7-10 days to show results; glufosinate generally takes 3 days (under normal temperature conditions); if the spray solution drifts, glyphosate will kill the crop, causing reduced or no harvest; glufosinate will only produce spray spots on the contact area, with no great impact on crop growth; glyphosate generally cannot be used on crops with shallow roots or roots exposed outside; glufosinate can be used on almost all crops; glyphosate generally requires 20-30 days after application before sowing and transplanting; glufosinate allows sowing and transplanting in 1-4 days.

The above are the main differences between glufosinate and glyphosate. Although the two names are very similar, when applying them it is still best to distinguish them carefully, so as to avoid using the wrong pesticide and causing reduced crop yields.