Article taken from The Scottish Farmer
Using a fungicide to control disease in trials of maize last year has also produced some added benefit.
John Ball, of Agrovista, was expecting Comet 200 (pyraclostrobin) to control diseases in the trials last year, but he wasn’t expecting a measurable physiological (AgCelence) benefits of this fungicide on the crop.
Last year, was a low disease year for eyespot and northern leaf blight, with brown rust at a low level too. All these diseases take out green leaf area, reducing the crop’s ability to photosynthesise and hence reducing the tonnage of the crop, he said.
The strobiliurin fungicide Comet 200 acts preventatively in maize and it is a well-known andhighly effective active ingredient. “It is also known to have positive physiological effects and last year when diseases we low in maize this was very obvious,” he said.
“Treated crop yields were up by 5% (around 2.5 t/ha) and there were measurably fewer double cobs. The untreated had 20% double cobbing and the Comet 200 treated had just 7%. Start levels were up, too.
“Double cobbing is usually a consequence of stress and it adversely affects silage quality, so the pyraclostrobin was definitely helping here. We wanted to look at chlorophyll levels as greening is another classic benefit of Comet 200 in other crops, but there are any specific calculations for maize at the moment.”
Comet 200 now has a full label recommendation for use in forage and grain maize crops, replacing the previous ‘special use’ licence.
It has a maximum individual dose rate of 1.0 l/ha and a maximum of one treatment per crop and can be applied up to and including mid-flowering stage.
Using a fungicide to control disease in trials of maize last year has also produced some added benefit.
John Ball, of Agrovista, was expecting Comet 200 (pyraclostrobin) to control diseases in the trials last year, but he wasn’t expecting a measurable physiological (AgCelence) benefits of this fungicide on the crop.
Last year, was a low disease year for eyespot and northern leaf blight, with brown rust at a low level too. All these diseases take out green leaf area, reducing the crop’s ability to photosynthesise and hence reducing the tonnage of the crop, he said.
The strobiliurin fungicide Comet 200 acts preventatively in maize and it is a well-known andhighly effective active ingredient. “It is also known to have positive physiological effects and last year when diseases we low in maize this was very obvious,” he said.
“Treated crop yields were up by 5% (around 2.5 t/ha) and there were measurably fewer double cobs. The untreated had 20% double cobbing and the Comet 200 treated had just 7%. Start levels were up, too.
“Double cobbing is usually a consequence of stress and it adversely affects silage quality, so the pyraclostrobin was definitely helping here. We wanted to look at chlorophyll levels as greening is another classic benefit of Comet 200 in other crops, but there are any specific calculations for maize at the moment.”
Comet 200 now has a full label recommendation for use in forage and grain maize crops, replacing the previous ‘special use’ licence.
It has a maximum individual dose rate of 1.0 l/ha and a maximum of one treatment per crop and can be applied up to and including mid-flowering stage.