Fungicide programmes feel a little stretched this year and I thought you'd be interested to see why I'm recommending a Heritage WG, Medallion and Ryder tank mix to fill the gap.
FR321 is a great tank mix with a good quantity of both systemic and contact fungicide with:
- The proven plant health benefits of Heritage
- The spore knockdown qualities of Medallion
- and
- The turf quality and colour benefits of Ryder
With "Fuz season" quickly sneaking up on us, many of you are looking at your autumn disease ITM strategies and how you incorporate your fungicide applications into them.
The concept is pretty simple, if turf is growing strongly then use a systemic.
If growth is minimal use a contact.
If we take a look at Growth degree day figures for 2018 you can see that the reality is slightly more complex. We don't move from good growth, to no growth overnight.
During periods of strong growth Heritage is my go to product
During periods of low growth Medallion is my go to product
During the in between periods then Instrata Elite is the way to go because of its two active ingredients - one systemic, one contact.
The challenge here is that this period of "inbetween" seems to be getting longer! With ground frost already seen around the UK this September, along with potential for growth well past Christmas.
Instrata Elite has two applications on the label, which in some areas of the country and / or for courses with high disease pressure, just isn't enough.
If we wish to rotate chemistry and ensure that elongated period is covered, we need something else to fill the gap.
When I'm helping turf managers put programmes together, here's my gap filler and some trial data to support it.
- Heritage WG @ 0.3Kg/Ha
- Medallion @ 2L/Ha
- Ryder @1L/Ha
In the two trials above, both in the 'inbetween' conditions, the combination of the Heritage and the Medallion gave us stronger results than the individual products by themselves.
Furthermore, by adding Ryder into the mix during this period of slowing growth in this trial, we gained an increase in turf quality and this is something that more turf managers are seeing.
The last and probably the expected benefit of Ryder is the uplift in colour that we see and at this time of year the longevity of the product is significant.
This tank mix will be available very soon as the FR321 one box solution. Looking to fill that Autumn gap, FR321 is a great fit.
