Resistance Management School: Deploying fungicides in the field

by

Could fungicide resistance develop on your farm? The answer to that question really depends on how you deploy fungicides in your fields, says Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Kelly Turkington.

On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Resistance Management School, Turkington explains that fungicide resistance really is a numbers game. He notes that a barley or wheat field can contain billions and trillions of plant stems that can harbour plant pathogens. Most of those pathogens will be susceptible to the fungicide a grower applies to the field, but there may be a small percentage that has a genetic make-up that either makes them less sensitive or even resistant to a fungicide product.

What drives an increase in the less sensitive or resistant pathogens is the frequency of fungicide use, says Turkington. He notes that multiple applications within a season, and operating in tight rotations, can lead to overuse of a particular fungicide, increase selection pressure and fuel growth of the resistant pathogen within the field.

Turkington says the first sign a grower might have a resistance problem is when they see declining fungicide product performance. In extreme cases, the pathogen can become completely insensitive to the fungicide you are applying.

But there are steps growers can take to safeguard fungicide performance and ensure resistant pathogens do not gain a foothold in their fields.

For Turkington, the number one rule is to use fungicides only when they are necessary. During a growing season, he advises growers to use a fungicide only once, if possible. “If a fungicide is required more often, look at rotating fungicides active ingredients, and consider products that contain a mixture of different active ingredients,” he adds. “That will greatly decrease the risk that you are going to select for fungicide resistant strains of the pathogen within your field.”

Click here for more episodes of Resistance Management School.

Other Episodes

Resistance Management School (view all)Season 3 (2020) Episode 1

Please register to read and comment.

Privacy Preference Center

Necessary

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

gdpr, __cfduid, PHPSESSID, wordpress_test_cookie, woocommerce_items_in_cart, woocommerce_cart_hash, wp_woocommerce_session, wordpress_logged_in, wordpress_sec, wp-settings, wp-settings-time, __cf_mob_redir, wordpress_cache, realag
__cfduid

Marketing

Measuring interactions with the ads on the domain.

__gads,fsk_ut_2317
IDE

Statistics

These are used to track user interaction and detect potential problems. These help us improve our services by providing analytical data on how users use this site.

_ga,_gid,_gat,_cb,_chartbeat2,_chartbeat4
_ga,_gid
metrics_token

Preferences

Preference cookies enable the website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.

chartdefaults, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url
JSESSIONID, _os_session,anonymous_votes,csrf-param,csrf-token,user,user-id,user-platform,intercom-session,intercom-lou,intercom-session
personalization_id, tfw_exp

 

Register for a RealAgriculture account to manage your Shortcut menu instead of the default.

Register