Maintaining Healthy Sugarbeet Crops with BASF’s Provysol® Fungicide

Sugarbeets from Getner-Bischer Farms, Michigan. Photo: Michigan Ag Today

So far in Michigan, 85 percent of the state’s sugarbeet crop has been planted and 30 percent has already emerged according to the USDA. While sugarbeet producers are ahead of the game when it comes to planting, it’s time now to think about getting the most yield at harvest.

“When we think about sugar quantity and quality in sugarbeets it’s very negatively impacted by Cercospora Leaf Spot,” says Trevor Kraus, Technical Service Representative for BASF. He says the fungus can rob yield from your sugarbeets—so he recommends using Provysol® fungicide, which has a chemical molecule that specifically targets and attacks the fungus.

“What really it boils down to is the molecular structure has some flexibility in a key area of that molecule,” according to Kraus. “That flexibility allows the chemical molecule to fit into the fungal pathogen better and more tightly, which at the end of the day gives us better efficacy.”

He says it’s best to use Provysol® earlier in the growing season.

“The molecule has very stable properties, so it lasts a long time,” says Kraus. “It’s very lipid soluble or wax soluble, so it likes to accumulate in the waxy structures of the leaf. I think when we apply it earlier, we get that better coverage and take advantage of those properties, so we do generally see better results when we get earlier in the season.”

Since there are limited chemistries on the market to combat Cercospora Leaf Spot, Kraus advises sugarbeet producers to rotate their products.

“We’ve learned our lesson with fungicide resistance—especially with Cercospora Leaf Spot—that it’s imperative that we’re not making back-to-back applications of the same mode of action,” says Kraus. “Changing the brand doesn’t necessarily mean you’re changing the mode of action. carefully look at what modes of action you’re using. We always recommend a Provysol® application goes out with a multi-site fungicide—typically, those are EBDC (ethylene bisdithiocarbamate) chemistries—to help protect against resistance.”

Click here to learn more about Provysol® fungicide from BASF.

Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news report for Michigan Ag Today.

 

 

 

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