Farm Progress

How does your fungicide work?

Choose the right fungicide product for the right application timing.

July 14, 2017

2 Min Read
2 TYPES: There are two types of fungicides, those with contact activity and those with systemic activity. Fungicides with systemic movement inside the plant provide longer-lasting disease control under less-than-ideal application conditions and timing.

Fungicides are an important tool for maintaining healthy crops and safeguarding yield. But not all fungicides are the same. How they work can have a major impact on their effectiveness. Choosing the right product for the right application timing and disease spectrum is essential to maximize crop protection.

Contact fungicides remain on leaf surfaces and have no after-infection activity, explains Ryan Meisgeier, technical sales agronomist with DuPont Crop Protection in northeast Iowa. “They can wash off with rain or be degraded by sunlight, requiring repeat applications,” he says. “Because they don’t move within the plant, new growth isn’t protected. Good spray coverage is required for effective control with contact fungicides.”

Contact vs. systemic activity
Systemic fungicides are absorbed into plant tissue to offer some after-infection activity, he adds. Translaminar activity, also known as local systemic activity, allows fungicide droplets to spread out and move inside leaf tissue for both internal and external protection. The underside of the leaf is also protected. Xylem-systemic fungicides deliver even more control because they move upward within the plant in xylem tissue to protect new growth.

DuPont Aproach and Aproach Prima fungicides offer contact, local and xylem-systemic movement, says Meisgeier. Aproach contains picoxystrobin, the most rapidly absorbed type of strobilurin available. Field studies showed improved corn yield, with an average increase of 6.86 bushels per acre, when Aproach-treated corn hybrids were compared to untreated controls.

DuPont Aproach Prima fungicide uses two modes of action and has preventive, curative and eradication activity against fungal disease. That means it controls disease at all phases of the pathogen life cycle for corn, soybean and wheat diseases, he says. On-farm strip trials done in 2015 and 2016 showed an average $14-per-acre return on investment when Aproach Prima was applied to corn, and an average $11-per-acre return on investment in soybeans.

Learn more about specific disease signs and control strategies at DuPont Foliar Health Center. For crop protection product information at your fingertips, download the app, DuPont Evalio FieldPartner US, from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. For answers to questions email [email protected].

Source: DuPont Crop Protection

 

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