The major chemical companies have been busy creating new fungicides to help growers control diseases in their major crops. Here’s a peek at a couple of the more interesting ones.
BASF recently introduced Twinline Fungicide for broad-spectrum disease control in wheat, oats and barley. As the name implies, Twinline contains two popular fungicide modes of action, a strobilurin (Group 11) and a triazole (Group 3). When applied before disease symptoms appear, Twinline should effectively control virtually all the common leaf diseases such as Septoria, Tan Spot, Powdery Mildew, and Rusts. The advantage to a broad-spectrum product like Twinline is that you don’t have to be a disease expert, since it will control all the major leaf diseases you are likely to encounter. However, it will not control Fusarium head blight which occurs later in the season. Twinline represents an alternative to Bayer’s popular Stratego Fungicide which also contains the same two modes of action, although Bayer uses different chemicals to achieve this. Either of these products provide growers with the tools to get the job done.
Check out SAVVYFARMER.COM for more great information on Crop Protection Products
Canola growers also have a new tool to control Sclerotinia. Vertisan Fungicide represents a completely new mode of action (Group 7) and has some other interesting characteristics such as ‘translaminar’ activity. What this means is that the product moves inside and then locally throughout the leaf. This should provide some good residual activity but also means that perfect application may not be quite as important as it might be with contact products. Of course, the better the application, the better the results. Another benefit of Vertisan is that it can also be used to control ascochyta in your pulse crops.
Each of these new fungicides is worth checking into when disease conditions threaten your crop.