Fight Fusarium Blight With New BASF Product
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Chemical company BASF has announced that it has acquired its federal registration for a new fungicide to fight against fusarium head blight. Called a “systemic fungicide”, the product will work to fight fusarium blight, while ensuring high-level control against leaf disease.
Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The product is called Caramba, and is a triazole-based fungicide that is now registered for use with oat, rye, barley and wheat crops. The German company’s Canadian branch announced that it received approval from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) of Health Canada.
Caramba uses the active ingredient metconazole. Metconazole is a “group 3” fungicide, and the company credits it with not only protective but also “curative” properties that make it a natural choice against foliar crop diseases.
“Fusarium is a dirty word for growers and they know the damage it can cause,” sais BASF Canada representative, Brand Manager Mike Bakker in a release. “Growers finally have a product specifically developed to help them manage this disease in cereals.”
BASF Canada also touts the additional benefits of using a product to manage fusarium head blight, citing the possibility for improved yields and lowered contamination levels of deoxynivalenol (DON). In the release, BASF credited these additional benefits with protecting “quality” as well as “value.”
According to the label, Caramba should be applied when flowering is at about 20 per cent on crops like oats, rye and wheat. When used on barley, Caramba should be applied after full head emergence and before about three days of full main stem head emergence.
Although it may seem late to be spraying fungicide at flowering, the product works at this level and BASF Canada warns that there is a small window for the optimum time for application.
Because of the small window for application, farmers using Caramba should allow for some extra planning time, to ensure that their application system is in place and ready to go. With the expected warm, wet conditions ahead, BASF representatives claim that the product should make cereal producers “very happy this year”. The product is available in most supply shops. Visit the BASF website for more information.
