Using a Fungicide to Protect Your Wheat Crop

If your wheat crop made it healthily to this point in the growing season, you’re probably thinking about what you can do now to protect your yield. A fungicide application may be the right choice for your operation.

How do fungicides support a healthy wheat crop?

Fungicides can bring a substantial benefit to your wheat crop by improving plant health, increasing stability and protecting yield. Fungicides do their best work in fighting the yield-limiting effects of diseases such as stripe rust, head scab and powdery mildew—all diseases that can wreak havoc on a crop. 

Three classes of fungicide

Preventative fungicides

These protect wheat from diseases before they are present in the field. These include fungicides with strobilurin as the primary active ingredient, such as Quadris® and Headline®

Curative fungicides

These stop the spread of disease after it has infected the plant. These include those with triazoles as the active ingredient, such as Tilt®, Caramba® and Folicur®.

Combination fungicides

These are a mix of both preventative and curative fungicides and can protect plants from disease, while stopping the spread of disease already in the plant. These include products such as TwinLine®, Quilt Xcel® and Stratego®.

When should you apply fungicide to wheat?

If you’re experiencing early-season disease pressure in your wheat, then you’ll want to apply fungicide early on. 

However, if you think you’ll only have one opportunity to apply fungicide to your crop, applying at flag leaf emergence will help you achieve your highest ROI potential. The flag leaf is the leaf driving the photosynthesis that supports head and grain development, so you’ll want to put your biggest effort into protecting it.

You should wait for the flag leaf if disease pressure is low. If the conditions are right for disease pressure, however, it can pop up at any time—so pay close attention to conditions should you need to apply a preventative fungicide in your fields.

Address your management needs all season long with FBN Direct®

You can double down on savings and convenience when you shop for ag chemicals on FBN Direct.

Simply buy the crop protection products you need online and get them shipped directly to your farm. It’s just one of many different ways we’re making farming better for farmers.

Quilt Xcel®, Tilt® and Quadris® are registered trademarks of Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC. Stratego® and Folicur® are registered trademarks of Bayer CropScience. Headline®, TwinLine® and Caramba® are registered trademarks of BASF Ag Products.Copyright © 2014 - 2020 Farmer's Business Network, Inc. All rights reserved. The sprout logo, "FBN" and "Farmers Business Network" are registered service marks of Farmer's Business Network, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. FBN Direct Services are offered by FBN Inputs, LLC and are available only in states where FBN Inputs, LLC is licensed. FBN Direct is a service mark of Farmer's Business Network, Inc. Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, adjuvants, and biostimulants can be ordered online and via mobile app. Please contact an FBN Sales representative for fertilizer and seed orders.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. It is a violation of federal and state/provincial law to use any pesticide product other than in accordance with its label. The distribution, sale and use of an unregistered pesticide is a violation of federal and/or state law and is strictly prohibited. We do not guarantee the accuracy of any information provided on this page or which is provided by us in any form. It is your responsibility to confirm prior to purchase and use that a product is labeled for your specific purposes, including, but not limited to, your target crop or pest and its compatibility with other products in a tank mix.