The Syngenta product helps protect against Sudden Death Syndrome in soybeans
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Soybean producers will have a new tool next planting season to help protect against a damaging disease.
Saltro, Syngenta’s new fungicide seed treatment for Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), received registration from the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday. Producers can purchase the product for the 2020 growing season.
The Group 7 fungicide contains Adepidyn, an SDHI mode of action that protects against SDS and Soybean Cyst Nematode, while promoting better plant stands and healthier leaves.
“With earlier planting programs and erratic weather, the last thing a grower needs at the beginning of the season is additional stress on their soybeans from their seed treatment,” Paul Oklesh, product lead for Syngenta Seedcare, said in a statement Friday. “Growers have come to expect that they have to give up early-season plant health in order to get SDS protection, but with Saltro, that’s no longer true.”
Cool and wet soils like farmers experienced this year help the development of SDS and soybean researchers are seeing the disease pop up in fields.
“I was walking plots this morning in my foliar fungicide trials, where I don’t want to see SDS, and every plot had it,” Daren Mueller, an extension plant pathologist with Iowa State University, told Farms.com. “The growth stage we’re in now (R3), is usually the last week of August and is when we see the disease the most. We’re just a little bit behind with growing degrees and planting dates.”
SDS can significantly affect yields.
The disease can rob between 20 and 80 per cent of a field’s yield depending on the variety and when the symptoms start to appear.
“The disease can be devastating to yield,” Rachel Vann, an assistant professor and extension soybean specialist at North Carolina State University, told Farms.com. “It can lead to pod fills being inhibited and can rob farmers of large portions of their yields.”
Daren Mueller photo