New BW Defend™ biocontrol lineup strengthens crop protection for 2026 season
BW Fusion has introduced BW Defend™, a new lineup of biocontrol products designed to support modern crop protection programs for corn and soybeans. The products expand the company’s portfolio into EPA-registered bioinsecticide and biofungicide solutions and are developed to work within integrated pest management systems.
The BW Defend™ series combines BW Fusion’s Inclusion Carrier Technology featuring DUST with crop-specific biostimulants and biocontrol strains.
This system helps plants establish early colonization, allowing crops to activate natural defense pathways before pest or disease pressure increases during the growing season. According to company leadership, the goal is to provide growers with another practical tool that supports healthier soils and plants while helping maintain yield potential.
“Biocontrols are the future of farming. BW Defend™ is the first to BW Fusion and a strategic addition to our lineup that fits seamlessly into how we help growers become more efficient,” said Greg McClure, VP of Strategy for BW Fusion.
“This gives growers another tool that works with our systems approach, supporting healthier soil and plants, helping defend yield potential season-long, and offering more options that work with biology instead of just stacking additional chemistry,” said McClure.
The lineup includes different solutions for corn and soybeans. For corn, BW Defend™ FC focuses on fungal protection against threats such as tar spot, crown rot, and southern rust. BW Defend™ PC targets pests including corn rootworm, wireworm, white grubs, fall armyworm, and root knot nematodes.
For soybeans, BW Defend™ FS offers protection against fungal diseases such as white mold, pythium damping off, rhizoctonia root rot, fusarium SDS, and phytophthora root rot. BW Defend™ PS targets pest challenges including soybean looper, stink bug, and root knot nematodes.
Field trials conducted between 2023 and 2025 showed positive performance results. The fungi-focused protection demonstrated an average benefit of 5.9 bushels per acre in corn and 3.4 bushels per acre in soybeans. The products use pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph biocontrol strains that help prime plant defense responses, allowing crops to react faster when stress occurs later in the season.
BW Defend™ also offers practical benefits for growers, including a two-year shelf life, 180-day viability once applied to seed, and compatibility with many common seed treatment products.
The new products are part of the BW Control™ Series and will be available for the 2026 planting season. The launch follows a finalized agreement between BW Fusion and New Leaf Symbiotics, supporting continued innovation in biological crop protection solutions.
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