DuPont launches mix-and-match SDHI fungicide
Agrochemical giant DuPont has launched a new SDHI cereal fungicide which it is claimed gives growers the flexibility to mix it with other products of their choice.
This follows SDHIs from rivals BASF, Bayer and Syngenta and will be sold as a straight product or in a mix with chlorothalonil to control diseases such as septoria and yellow and brown rust.
The new generation of SDHIs needs to be used with another fungicide with a different mode of action to delay resistance building up, and DuPont says its product allows growers to choose a partner.
The straight product is called Vertisan, containing the active ingredient penthiopyrad, which is approved for use on all cereals, while the chlorothalonil mix is called Treoris and has clearance for wheat, although a wider recommendation is anticipated.
The new SDHI fungicide was registered for use in the UK at the end of March and will be available through most distribution outlets this season.
The US group says the straight penthiopyrad product will give users the choice of which broad-spectrum triazole fungicide to use with it.
“It will give flexibility and choice to growers to use the triazole of their choice,” said Mike Ashworth, the group’s fungicide product manager.
The two most popular triazoles are Bayer’s Proline (prothioconazole) and BASF’s Ignite (epoxiconazole) so growers can chose which to mix with DuPont’s SDHI.
The other three companies – BASF, Bayer and Syngenta – sell their SDHIs in mixture with triazoles in products such as Adexar, Aviator and Seguris, although BASF does sell its SDHI separately as Imtrex.
The new SDHI penthiopyrad has given similar control of key cereal diseases in trials during 2012, according to the Home-Grown Cereals Authority.
These trials used penthiopyrad with the triazole epoxiconazole and gave similar disease control to the more established SDHI/triazole products.
“It is really another tool in the armoury of the cereal grower,” says Paul Gosling, research and knowledge transfer manager at HGCA.
He cautions that the trial data only comes for one year, 2012, and that this season was one of very high disease pressure and this may have influenced the result.
