Crop Science · Knowledge

Actives Library

Mode of action, honest limits, safety and the published evidence for each active in the Vegalab crop range.

Mode of action, honest limits, safety and the published evidence for each active in the Vegalab crop range.

An active is the component doing the work. A product is an active plus everything that carries it — the encapsulation, the surfactants, the carriers — and the two are not interchangeable. These pages are about the actives, which is why a page may cover a compound that appears in four products, or in none yet.

Pages are tiered by how much there is to say and how much is searched for. Tier 1 pages cover a single active with its own mechanism and evidence base. Group pages cover a class where the members behave similarly enough that separate pages would repeat each other, and where the useful content is the comparison between them.

Each page follows the same order: what it is, how it works, what the research shows, what it does not do, the conditions that change the outcome, safety, regulatory status, and the products built on it. The order is fixed so you can skip to the section you need, and so that each section still makes sense read on its own.

Where a compound appears in more than one pillar, it is covered in full once and linked from the others. Geraniol is a crop active and a declared cosmetic fragrance allergen; rather than write it twice and risk the two versions drifting apart, the full page lives in Crop Science and the other pillars point at it.

Pages in this section

Tier Tier 1

Bacillus subtilis

The most widely used bacterial biocontrol agent in agriculture, working by several mechanisms at once.

Tier Flagship

Beneficial nematodes

Living organisms rather than chemistry. Steinernema and Heterorhabditis hunt insect larvae in soil — and the conditions of application decide whether

Tier Group

Chelated micronutrients

EDTA-Fe and related chelates solve a real problem in alkaline soils. How chelation works, and the honest answer on whether it is natural.

Tier 1

Geraniol

A plant-derived monoterpene alcohol used against plant-parasitic nematodes, mites and mildew. What the research shows, why contact matters far more th

Tier Tier 1

Glycine betaine

One of the best-evidenced osmoprotectants in plant science, and a rare case where the biostimulant mechanism is genuinely settled.

Tier Tier 1

Humic and fulvic acids

The stable end products of organic matter decomposition. Real effects on soil chemistry and root growth, and a literature that requires care to read.

Tier Tier 1

L-tryptophan

The biochemical precursor of auxin. One of the few biostimulant ingredients with a clean, single-pathway mechanism.

Tier Group

Mycorrhizal fungi

Five arbuscular mycorrhizal species in Charge BioBoost. A symbiosis older than agriculture, and the main reason phosphorus uptake improves.

Tier Group

Nutrient salts in a foliar feed

Eleven nutrient salts appear across the range. What each supplies, why a naturally derived product contains them, and where the labelling needs to be

Tier Group

Organic acids

Citric, phytic, gluconic, glutamic and phosphoric acid appear across almost every product. They do more work than their position on a label suggests.

Tier Flagship

Oxymatrine

A quinolizidine alkaloid from Sophora flavescens, used against a very wide range of larval pests. One of the least documented major botanical insectic

Tier Tier 1

Peppermint oil

Menthol-rich essential oil with contact insecticidal and repellent activity — and the same hard cat-safety constraint as geraniol.

Tier Group

Cytokinins and auxins

Seaweed extracts contain plant hormones at low concentrations. What they do, and why the regulatory boundary matters more than the biology.

Tier Tier 1

Propolis

A bee-produced resin used as a crop input. Genuinely antimicrobial, genuinely variable, and an unusual choice worth explaining.

Tier Group

Protein hydrolysates and amino acids

Hydrolysed proteins and free amino acids appear in six crop products. What they contribute beyond nitrogen — and why the source material matters.

Tier Tier 1

Pyroligneous liquor (wood vinegar)

The condensate from wood pyrolysis, used as a soil and plant amendment. Named as a platform technology in the range, with a thinner evidence base than

Tier Tier 1

Rosemary oil

A cross-pillar active: a miticidal essential oil in crop products and an antimicrobial and antioxidant in skincare.

Tier Group

Saponins and bio-surfactants

Tea saponin, quillaja, yucca and bio-surfactants share a mechanism: they are amphiphilic molecules that disrupt membranes and improve wetting.

Tier Group

Seaweed extracts

Ascophyllum, Sargassum and Laminaria appear across the biostimulant range. Real effects, genuinely variable material, and a cross-pillar ingredient.

Tier Tier 1

Silicon and potassium silicate

Not an essential nutrient for most plants, but one of the better-evidenced stress and defence amendments in agriculture.

Tier Group

Sugars and osmolytes

Trehalose, sucrose, mannitol, stevioside and xylose appear across the Boost range. Some are osmoprotectants, some are carbon, and one is a cross-pilla

Tier Tier 1

Tea saponin

A triterpenoid saponin from Camellia oleifera seed cake, used against slugs, snails and soil-surface pests. Effective, and genuinely hazardous to fish

Tier Tier 1

Thymol

A phenolic monoterpene from thyme with broad antifungal and antimicrobial activity, used at 1% against a wide disease range.

Tier Tier 1

Titanium dioxide

A light-management amendment rather than a nutrient or a pesticide. The only ingredient of its kind in the range, and the claim needs care.

Tier Tier 1

Trichoderma

A fungus that parasitises other fungi, and one of the few biocontrol agents with a mechanism you can watch under a microscope.

27 pages in this section.

Product claims, registrations and availability vary by jurisdiction. Always read and follow the applicable product label.