Volume
5 Issue 1
May 13, 2008
Fungicide Registrations for Managing Cereal
Diseases in Minnesota
Soils are warming up and everyone is looking
forward to seeing fields with green. This is the first year that I
have some very good news to report from a disease management
perspective. Don’t get ahead of me, here. I not reporting our cereal
disease issues are behind us (unfortunately, that day may never
come), but I can report that we’ve made substantial breakthroughs in
obtaining registrations for fungicides that will help us manage
diseases. This year the EPA has issued Section 3 registrations for
the use of:
- Folicur (tebuconazole), Bayer CropScience:
labeled for rust and Fusarium head blight (FHB)
- Orius (tebuconazole), MANA: same diseases as
Folicur
- Caramba (metconazole), BASF: leaf diseases
including rusts and FHB
- Multiva (metconazole + pyraclostrobin), BASF:
leaf diseases including rusts
Additionally, Minnesota has Section 2(ee) registrations to apply
Proline + Folicur in 3 + 3 fl oz/A or 4 + 4 fl oz/A tank-mixtures.
The 3 + 3 mixture is comparable to the Prosaro formulation that will
eventually be available as a premix fungicide marketed by Bayer
CropScience.
So…. what exactly does this mean? These fungicides are now
registered for use in cereals on a multi-year, rather than single
year basis. This will allow distribution of the chemistries to
normalize and should reduce availability issues for suppliers on
some chemistries. Global demand for fungicides is increasing, so the
marketplace will likely reflect the additional demand in
availability as well as price.
Many thanks to Dave Torgerson, Executive Director of the MN
Association of Wheat Growers, John Sierk, Minnesota Dept.
Agriculture, Marcia McMullen, NDSU, and the ND Grain Growers for
their contributions toward getting the Section 3 registration for
Folicur processed by the EPA. The effort has been ongoing for more
than a decade and its completion is a welcome accomplishment.
FHB epidemics depend on favorable environmental conditions for
development with warm, wet or humid weather occurring before and
during plant heading (barley) and flowering (wheat). Growing
moderately resistant varieties and rotating out of small grains
residue will reduce the risk for crop losses from disease. Minnesota
growers should monitor the scab epidemic forecasting website at
http://mawg.cropdisease.com/
at least two weeks before a fungicide application is due to be made
(heading for barley; early flowering for wheat). The website will
assist you in determining whether a fungicide application is needed.
Testing has been done to compare the efficacy of Folicur (tebuconazole),
Prosaro (formulation of prothioconazole + tebuconazole), and Caramba
(metconazole). Rates of active ingredients vary from test to test
with tebuconazole (Folicur) usually being tested at a lower,
comparative application rate. Keeping this in mind, results for a
couple test years are shown.
Results summary:
Wheat.
 Folicur
significantly increased yields in 2 of 2 years. In
2005,
Folicur performed better than the low rate of Caramba and was
comparable to the high rate.
 In
2006,
Folicur was again comparable to the high rate of Caramba. The
Prosaro treatment resulted in yields similar to
Folicur and Caramba (2005) or Caramba (2006).
Barley.
 No
statistical results were available. Barley varieties have little
resistance to FHB and an efficient disease management strategy is
difficult to achieve without an integrated management approach.
Cereal producers are fortunate to have so many fungicides from
which to choose. Always read and follow label directions.
Charla Hollingsworth
Extension Plant Pathologist
|
