New Syngenta fungicide a ‘game-changer’ for septoria control
© Tim Scrivener An eagerly awaited fungicide that has delivered substantial yield gains in wheat and barley crop trials has been approved for use in Great Britain.
Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta received notification from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 5 April for the approval of the active substance pydiflumetofen (Adepidyn technology).
Miravis Plus, which contains the SDHI, is now approved for use on a wide range of arable crops, including winter and spring wheat and barley.
See also: Will Arable Insights Farmers cut fungicide spend this season?
Syngenta says it will be available to the market in a co-pack with the tried-and-tested triazole fungicide prothioconazole.
Lizzie Carr-Archer, cereal fungicide portfolio manager at Syngenta, said: “Trials have shown [Miravis Plus] is extremely effective against the important diseases of Septoria tritici in wheat, and net blotch and ramularia in barley.
“It has also been shown to provide robust potency against rhynchosporium in barley, and significant reductions in fusarium head blight [FHB] in wheat, and in DON [deoxynivalenol] mycotoxin.”
UK trials
The fungicide has been undergoing rigorous development in the UK for the past seven years and is already registered and used successfully in many wheat-growing countries around the world, including the US, Canada, Argentina and New Zealand.
In the UK alone, Miravis has been tested in more than 500 trials, with a visible increase in green leaf area retention and significant yield improvement results, including yield increases in barley even in the absence of disease.
Todd Jexx, an Agrii agronomist covering Dorset and Wiltshire, said it was a “very exciting” development.
“The past couple of years seeing this [Miravis] in field trials of wheat, it is head and shoulders above its competitors,” he added.
“It’s going to be a game-changer as far as septoria control is concerned.”
Jonathan Blake, technical director of crop protection at Adas, said extensive trials of the fungicide had been carried out on cereals, especially wheat, at its Rosemaund site in Herefordshire.
Yield benefit
“In a high-pressure wheat trial in Herefordshire in 2019, when we flew a drone in mid-July, the only green plots were Adepidyn (pydiflumetofen) technology,” he said.
“It was a clear step change in activity.
“The total fungicide yield response over the untreated area was 3.75t/ha, and the Adepidyn technology-based treatments outyielded competitors by over 1t/ha.”
Mr Blake told Farmers Weekly that following weeks of relentless wet weather, there was significant disease pressure and threat in cereal crops in many parts of the country.
“I think choosing the best available chemicals at T2 will be something anybody with a decent crop of wheat should be considering,” he said.
Miravis performs consistently well at T2 timing, says Adas expert
Adas senior consultant in crop pathology Rebecca Joynt has conducted a number of field trials with Miravis Plus since 2018, looking at its impact on septoria in wheat and net blotch in barley.
“In both crops, trials have tested Miravis in mixture with prothioconazole at the T2 (GS39) timing,” said Ms Joynt.
“It performed consistently across seasons, gave excellent control of septoria and net blotch, maintained green leaf area for longer and often outyielded competitors.”
In 2022, Adas trials looked at the activity of Miravis against septoria from well-timed and sub-optimally timed applications. Treatments applied at the point of leaf emergence were the most effective.
Either side of this, Miravis treatments still provided over 90% control when applied up to seven days before and 10 days after full leaf emergence.
“This level of curative activity is important where T2 applications are delayed and improves the likelihood of achieving good septoria control on leaf two,” said Ms Joynt.
Other trials have investigated activity on septoria within the leaf.
“We inoculated with septoria and applied treatments at intervals post-infection.
“Miravis + prothioconazole treatments gave around twice the activity of mebenconazole + fluxapyroxad treatments up to 10 days into the latent period,” said Ms Joynt.
