Controlling Diseases
June 12, 2008 Competition challenges growers to stretch their resources effectively, down to every dollar and minute spent producing better plants. Growers depend on new disease management innovations, such as the newly registered Pageant fungicide from BASF Turf & Ornamentals, to grow healthier plants while controlling input costs.
With a one-two punch of boscalid, an active ingredient newly registered for use in ornamentals, and pyraclostrobin, the active ingredient in Insignia fungicide, Pageant offers excellent control of a variety of diseases.
Among the diseases it controls are downy and powdery mildews, phytophthora fungal leaf spots, anthracnose, rusts and scab, blights like botrytis and monilinia, and crown and basal rots like rhizoctonia, fusarium and cylindrocladium.
"Pageant is a broad-spectrum fungicide with activity on all four classes of fungi," says Todd Burkdoll, technical specialist for BASF. "It gives growers broader fungicidal activity and plant safety than any other product on the market. Growers using Pageant in trials report production efficiencies and disease control confidence."
Pageant’s unique mode of action inhibits fungal respiration at two separate sites within the mitochondria of fungal pathogens, resulting in a "double lock-down" on the respiration and energy flow within the fungi. It starts working within seconds of application and leads to healthier plants faster with fewer applications.
To get even more value from disease control applications, growers can tank mix Pageant with most recommended fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, liquid fertilizers, biological control products, adjuvants and additives.
For exceptional control of phytophthora and downy mildew diseases, Burkdoll recommends mixing Pageant with Stature SC fungicide, the new flowable formulation of dimethomorph. The combination offers immediate results, he says, and saves growers time and energy.
Pageant is labeled for use in greenhouses, lathhouses and shadehouses, or containers like flats, plugs and pots. It can also be used on other enclosed structures, outdoor nurseries, retail nurseries, forest and conifer nurseries and plantations, golf courses, residential and commercial landscapes, and interiorscapes. Application methods for Pageant fungicide include chemigation, foliar, drip and aerial for field-grown ornamentals.
Because fungicide resistance is an industry-wide threat that can dilute pesticide innovation, BASF has developed a free pest management guide that helps growers across the country become better chemical stewards.
According to BASF, manufacturers and growers share the responsibility to maintain the efficacy of solutions. Development of fungicide resistance is of particular concern for foliar pathogens such as downy mildews and some phytophthora species.
Growers can obtain a free pest management guide and learn more about innovation from BASF at www.betterplants.com.
Pageant is a registered trademark of BASF.*
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