New ‘all-in-one’ fungicide could save growers time and cost

A BRAND new, all-in-one fungicide formulation which should help growers cut down on the time required for mixing during sprayer fill-ups and reduce the amount of packaging waste has been approved for use in 2007.

Cherokee, from Syngenta, was originally launched in March 2006 as a value-for-money wheat fungicide to help growers maintain high yields while cutting down on disease control costs.

Combining high doses of two existing triazole fungicides, plus the anti-resistance component of the fungicide Bravo, it has been shown to provide comparable yields to mixtures of newer triazoles with Bravo. However, because there were none of the high development costs of new active ingredients, Syngenta was able to market it at a highly cost-effective price.

Now, a new formulation of the product has been approved which avoids users having to tank mix Cherokee with a separate compatibility agent - CA237 - required with the previous formulation. This will make it much easier to use, says Syngenta fungicide specialist David Ranner, because growers will be able to access the value of Cherokee from a single container, rather than handling two packs.

"That might not sound much, but it instantly halves the number of packs for storage, recording, emptying and rinsing," explains Mr Ranner. "It's also particularly useful because Cherokee is used at a busy time of the season - during March and April. So fewer packs means less hassle.

"It also means around 50% fewer packs to dispose of compared to competitor tank mixes of triazole + chlorothalonil - with a typical disposal cost for empty containers of around £1.20 per kilo," he adds.

The new Cherokee formulation has also been given a new MAPP number of MAPP 13251. The previous formulation had a MAPP number of 12768.