Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (MBI), a provider of pest management and plant health products for the agriculture, turf and ornamental, and water treatment markets, has launched a new commercial formulation of its Regalia biofungicide.

Regalia is a highly effective biofungicide for conventional and organic production that prevents and fights disease by triggering treated plants to produce disease-fighting bio chemicals while enhancing plant health to optimize yield. 

Pam Marrone, MBI’s chief executive officer, says the new formulation provides handlers with superior mixing and dispersion in the tank, while maintaining or enhancing performance for disease control and plant health. 

Regalia can be used as a stand-alone product, but like all disease control products, is best used  in combination with other fungicides to strengthen integrated programs  and to help manage resistance in a wide range of conventional and organic crops, Marrone says.

In 2015 field trials conducted with university and third- party evaluators in the northeastern U.S., the new Regalia formulation showed improved efficacy against fire blight, providing pome fruit growers with a valuable management tool that can be used to delay the development of resistance to antibiotics while providing enhanced control of shoot blight. 

This research also showed very promising spray programs when Regalia was tank mixed with copper fungicides or prohexadione-calcium, achieving control comparable to antibiotics.

Key attributes of the new REGALIA formulation include:

As part of an integrated disease management program, Regalia can be used to control plant pathogens on a wide range of crops including, but not limited to grapes (powdery mildew, Botrytis), almonds (brown rot, shot hole, powdery mildew), strawberries (powdery mildew, Botrytis), tomatoes (powdery mildew, Botrytis/gray mold, bacterial spot and speck, early blight), apples (powdery mildew, fire blight), and cucurbits including watermelons, pumpkins, and cucumbers  (powdery mildew, gummy stem blight, downy mildew).

Regalia is not harmful to workers, food, beneficials, and pollinators. It can be sprayed right up to harvest to manage residues for export.

http://marronebioinnovations.com/ag-products/brand/regalia/