With Septoria being the primary target for all wheat growers and the threat of yield losses as large as 50% in severely affected crops, farmers will be planning to use the most cost-effective fungicide programme they can. New data from Tom McCabe of University College, Dublin indicates that the simple additional of the adjuvant Kantor to a triazole plus chlorothalonil fungicide programme not only improves disease control and increases Green Leaf Area but also gives an additional yield increase of 0.54 t/ha.
“We wanted to test our adjuvant technology in Ireland where conditions are tough and disease pressure is always much higher than in England. Last year disease pressure, particularly Septoria, was massive. In the untreated areas of the UCD trial, Septoria infection on Leaf 2 was 86.6% and on Leaf 1 it was 56.6%. If you look at how important the contribution of each leaf is to the final yield (these two leaves contribute around two-thirds), you can understand that potentially there will be huge yield losses if this disease wasn’t controlled properly,” says Alan East, Technical Manager for Interagro.
Alan explains that the trial looked at a triazole plus chlorothalonil-based programme consisting of epoxiconazole and chlorothalonil at T1, followed by prothioconazole and chlorothalonil at T2. “This fungicide programme reduced Septoria from 56.6% on Leaf 1 down to 20% and from 86.6% on Leaf 2 down to 43%. But when you added in the specialist adjuvant Kantor, disease control was really boosted; Septoria on Leaf 1 was reduced to just 8% and on Leaf 2 to 20%. Kantor allows the fungicides to work even better. This can be demonstrated by the increase in Green Leaf Area; in the programme without the adjuvant, the Green Leaf Area on Leaf 1 was 80% and on Leaf 2 it was 55%. When Kantor was added to the fungicides, the Green Leaf Area was lifted on Leaf 1 to 92% and Leaf 2 to 80%. The more the Green Leaf Area, the better the yield is going to be.”
What really hit home in this study was the yield response, says Alan. “The programme that included Kantor gave a yield increase over and above the non-adjuvant programme of 0.54 t/ha. This is an amazing result and well worth having. With feed wheat at £125/tonne, the simple addition of Kantor resulted in £67.5/ha extra.”
“With the shift in Septoria sensitivity to triazoles and their decline in their eradicant performance, all farmers should be looking to tank mix them with a multi-site fungicide such as chlorothalonil. Triazoles will also be used to target rusts. By using a powerful and effective adjuvant such as Kantor, both the triazole and chlorothalonil elements in the mix can be boosted significantly.”
“Many growers will also be planning to mix their triazole with an SDHI, particularly at T2 but also at T1, to give a more complete disease spectrum and yield protection. Kantor will also add to their performance by enabling quick penetration of the leaf surface ensuring maximum uptake.”
Kantor is based on a unique patented class of agricultural adjuvant chemistry - the alkoxylated triglycerides. It is recommended at 0.15% of the total spray volume. This is 300 mls/ha in 200 litres or 150 mls/ha in 100 litres of water.
