7 Things US Farmers Should Know about Insecticide and Fungicide Applications this Year

As you start to think about using fungicide and insecticide applications this year to combat disease and pests, you’ll want to consider the best ways to get the most out of your application. The last thing you want is yield loss. 

Let’s look at the 7 things to know before applying insecticides and fungicides: 

1. Know your heat

Insect development can be tied to growing degree days (GDD). Growing degree days are a measurement of heat accumulation over time.(1) This is helpful in years where days are hotter than previous years and result in an acceleration of insect pressure and more opportunities for pests to affect yield potential by causing damage to roots and foliage. The GDD for 1st generation adult bean leaf beetles are 1,212 degree days.(2) Knowing the degree days can help develop increased awareness and scouting practices as your farm gets closer to these critical GDD.

Did you know that you can see growing degree units by uploading your planting data and unlocking this feature on your FBN® account? 

2. Scouting for Confidence

Increase your confidence in making timely fungicide and insecticide applications with a quality crop scouting program. Typical crop scouting of walking fields every 7 days will help to see patterns of increased pest or disease pressure. Knowing the economic threshold of specific pests can build confidence in when the time is right to make an insecticide application.

3. Curative or Preventive?

Fungicides can be segmented into two camps. Curative or Preventive.

Preventive activity happens when the fungicide is present in the leaf tissue but before initial infection occurs. Applications with a Group 11 Fungicide such as Azoxystrobin 2.08 can help create a protective barrier before plant diseases are present. 

A curative fungicide stops the early growth of the fungal pathogen after infection, the first step of the disease cycle, has occurred. Most curative fungicides are also preventive if applied prior to infection. Despite their name, curative fungicides will NOT cure a plant of the disease. They are not effective against advanced disease cycles. A Group 3 fungicide such as Propicon 3.6EC  is considered to be a curative fungicide.

Azoxystrobin 2.08 and Propicon 3.6EC can be tank mixed together to provide a one tank mix solution that's both preventive and curative.

4. Inspect what you expect

Do you know how much yield potential you saved from yield robbing pests and diseases this year? Uploading your harvest yield data to your FBN account will help you inspect and overlay many features to better understand crop performance.

5. The right time is the best time

The performance and benefits of a fungicide application such as Azoxystrobin 2.08 and Propicon 3.6EC are optimized at ideal times in crop cycle. Soybeans for example would be in the R3 stage to get the most benefit. (3) 

Consider adding Lambda-Cy 1EC  to your fungicide application. Insect feeding creates an entry point for fungal diseases to spread, so if you’ve got bugs, hammer them at the same time by adding an insecticide to your tank mix and keep them from spreading into other fields.

6. Optimize your Tank Mix

Make the most of your fungicide and insecticide applications by using adjuvants and crop nutrition products. Adjuvants help increase performance of the product through multiple functions. Insecticides need to be applied on contact while the key component of fungicides is to be absorbed into the plant. Farmers First™ adjuvants can help aid in coverage and absorption.

Find the right adjuvant pairing to your crop protection products with the Farmers First Adjuvant Guide.  Many growers leverage the fungicide application with the use of Nourish Vitals™ which aids in plant uptake.  Learn more about the complete lineup by downloading the Farmers First Crop Nutrition Product Guide.

7. Leverage your plan

Growers have many choices today where to purchase their inputs. Knowing ahead of time the products you need gives you flexibility to ensure you are making the best purchasing decision for your operation. FBN has many tools to leverage the network of over 43,000 growers, including transparent list prices. Did you make a purchase from your local retailer? Upload the invoice to FBN to unlock pricing transparency and see what the current market price is for the products you are searching.

Shop for Crop Protection Products

Find the products you need at FBN Direct®. We have a diverse crop nutrition product portfolio to provide product options for growers like you to support plant health.

Sources:

• https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/growing-degree-days-insect-pests

• https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/bean-leaf-beetle

• https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2011/07/effect-spraying-fungicides-r1-or-r3-soybean

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