Fungicide Review: Keeping Diseases at Bay
There’s some new fungicides being introduced into the market this year, and growers also saw the resurrection of an old fungicide standard in the fight against the late blight pathogen U.S. 23 in 2015.
Syngenta has two new products in its portfolio of disease-inhibiting fungicides for 2016.
Orondis received its U.S. registration on Sept. 19, 2015, for use on potatoes.
Bernd Druebbisch, Syngenta’s product lead for fungicides, said that Orondis is effective against late blight, downy mildew, Phythphthora root and stem blights. It contains the active ingrediant (AI) oxathiapiprolin, a new mode of action (MOA) listed in FRAC Group U15.
Druebbisch said that in field trials, Orondis has been very effective against the U.S. 23 late blight strain.Orondis has systemic action with translaminar movement and redistribution to protect developing leaves. Within 30 minutes of application, it has rainfastness.
Once it lands on the leaf it passes through the leaf,” he said. “It also controls the pathogen on the underside of the leaf. but it’s also being absorbed by the plant. It’s truly systemic.”
Durebbisch said that Orondis can be applied by either ground rig or aerial. Re-entry interval (REI) is 12 hours.
At this time, the maximum residue levels for export markets are still being worked out, according to Druebbisch.
“What we can say at this point, Canada and Mexico should not be a problem,” he said. “We also have MRLs established in Japan, but all other countries, they will be available as we go forward.”
Druebbisch said that Syngenta will be providing regular updates when other countries have granted import tolerances, or MRLs.
Amanda Gevens, plant pathologist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that supplies of Orondis would be limited in 2016. She said she was impressed with the late blight control data coming out of trials in other states.
If growers can get a hold of Orondis, Gevens is recommending that they trial it on a small-acreage basis.
“It is a brand new FRAC group,” she said. “Which gives us an advantage. There’s not any anticipated resistance, and it has lengthy residual activity for producers.”
In the fight against the U.S. 23 late blight pathogen, researchers and growers rediscovered an old ally, Synenta’s Ridomil fungicide.
“Used to be, up through the early 90s, Ridomil was commonly used to manage late blight,” said Jeff Miller, a research agronomist in Rupert, Idaho.
Miller said that Ridomil was very effective against the U.S.1 strain, but the genotype began to change and become resistant to Ridomil.
He said a few years ago they found that the most recent strains, U.S.23 and U.S.24, were sensitive to Ridomil.
Given last year’s experience with U.S.24, both Miller and Gevens are advising growers to use Ridomil in their effort to control late blight infestation.
Gevens recommends that growers use Ridomil sometime between emergence and row closure. She warned growers that they are starting to see reduced efficacy of Ridomil in some of Wisconsin’s southern growing regions.
“What we’re seeing is some diversity in the isolates that are coming to us,” Gevens said. “The U.S.23, they’re not completely sensitive to Ridomil.”
Syngenta’s second new fungicide is named Elatus. Syngenta has taken its Solatenol fungicide and combined it with the AI azoxystrobin to create Elatus.
“It’s going to be a one shot deal, up front, in-furrow application,” said Paul Kuhn, technical product lead, fungicide for Elatus. “The main disease we’re interested in is Rhizoctonia solani, but also silver scurf and black dot.”
It has an REI of 12 hours.
Kuhn said that the active ingredients in Elatus come from two different fungicide groups. Azoxystrobin, a Qol fungicide, is in FRAC Group 11, and solatenol, a SDHI fungicide, is in FRAC Group 7.
Kuhn said that the combination of the two active ingredients working together provide an effective resistance management plan and present a dual attack against rhizoctonia.
He said that MRLs have been applied for, and that registration is pending in California.
“We’ve done some trials on Elatus and it’s been very good against Rhizoctonia,” Miller said. “It’ll be very interesting to see how it works on a large-scale basis.”
Is it a nematicide or is it a fungicide? Bayer Cropscience (BCS) is calling its newest product, Velum Prime, a nematicide with fungicide benefits.
As this issue goes to press, Velum Prime is not yet registered, but Joel Lipsitch, BCS product manager, anticipates federal registration sometime in late January, and then the product will be on the market.
“Velum Prime will be an overhead chemigation-applied nematicide with fungicide benefits,” Lipsitch said.
Velum Prime will contain fluopyram, one of the active ingredients in Bayer’s Luna Tranquility fungicide, used to control early blight and white mold.
“Assuming our registration is complete, we intend to claim nematode suppression across a broad range of nematode species and suppression of early blight and white mold,” Lipsitch said.
He said that BCS is recommending that growers apply Velum Prime when plants are at the 6 to 8 inch roseate stage of growth, and to use it in combination with other products.
Lipsitch said that the product will probably be listed in FRAC Group 7, the same FRAC Group as Luna Tranquility.
Saad Haafez, University of Idaho Extension nematologist at the Parma Research and Extension Center, said that he has been working with Velum Prime for the past five years.
“It’s a very effective product, but it’s not a standalone treatment,” Haafez said. “It can be used in a program with Telone II, Vapam, Movento or Mocap.”
Both Haafez and Jeff Miller said that Velum Prime has shown good suppression on Columbia root knot and root-lesion nematodes.
