Wetting Agent?

Here in Central Wisconsin, fellow orchardists have been joining forces to share ideas and cost-share supply acquisition. Wetting agent came up recently and I wanted to get opinions from the HON community?

Good?
Bad?
Indifferent?

My gut says, "Gee, this wasn't here before we came along," and another initial thought is that "the first couple of years are the most important for a planting."

In soil like ours, a loamy sand that had been farmed to the hilt in years past, is not capable of providing a suitable environment for a new planting's first couple years, is it a good idea to utilize such a component?

If you have sand, I would think your issue would be more the holding of moisture, which would be organic additions of carbon, and maybe even composts you have added clay to. Do you really have problems with a sand soil running water off instead of absorbing it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2019 06:37PM by Tom Kleffman.

Thanks Tom. Speaking of wetting, I am just getting my feet wet here in orcharding and have confused myself with these additives that I'm coming across. The application I was thinking about is applied at time of planting to maximize the use of any moisture. Maybe a root gel? Of course organic matter soil amendment is number one in my book, but curious what experience others have had with this type of application...