Solatenol Fungicides Provide Long-Lasting Disease Protection

Clay Sellers never underestimates the importance of controlling fungal diseases in his fields. He also demands results and sticks with solutions that work.

“White mold can be a big challenge around here in peanuts,” says Sellers, who raises peanuts, cotton, cabbage, green beans and cattle near Hartsfield, Georgia. “You need to protect the crop if you want to make the yield.”

Fortunately, Sellers’ crop consultant, Bubba Lambreth, recommended Elatus^® fungicide from Syngenta, which is designed for peanut and potato production, for the 2016 growing season. The product contains Solatenol^®, a powerful succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicide. It also offers two modes of action and excellent rainfastness for broader, more consistent disease control. This all sounded promising to Sellers, who tried Elatus on a portion of his acres that year.

“I want a fungicide that controls problems before they get started,” says Sellers, who applied Elatus early in the spring of 2016. “We used it 35 days after planting, and Elatus absolutely stopped white mold in its tracks.”

“I want a fungicide that controls problems before they get started. We used it 35 days after planting, and Elatus absolutely stopped white mold in its tracks.”

With its long-lasting residual control, Elatus offered such a vast improvement that Sellers had no reservations using the fungicide again in 2017. “We went whole hog with it, because it protects your yield, which helps you make a profit,” he says.

Trivapro Helps Corn Grower Reach New Yields

Consistent disease control is critical for maximizing both yield and return on investment (ROI) with any fungicide. “The economic environment is very challenging for a lot of growers right now, and they’re looking for a fungicide that can deliver that ROI year in and year out,” says Steve Eury, product marketing manager for fungicides at Syngenta. Eury points to Trivapro^® fungicide, which contains Solatenol—the same robust, long-lasting chemistry in Elatus—to help control yield-robbing fungal diseases in corn, soybeans and wheat. “Growers have seen that Trivapro can provide a consistent yield increase, compared with the competition, across crops and across geographies.”

Caleb Ragland, a corn grower from LaRue County, Kentucky, gave Trivapro a try at the R1 stage of growth after planting in his area was delayed until June a couple of years ago, due to wet conditions. “Trivapro was an absolute home run,” says Ragland. “We had a 40- to 50-bushel difference across the board where we applied Trivapro, versus our untreated acreage.”

These results prompted Ragland to apply Trivapro on all his corn acres in 2017. “We’re in a yield environment we’d never reached before,” he says. “Our farm average was above 230 bushels an acre for our whole farm. Trivapro played a big part, and I believe it’s the best product offered in the industry right now, hands down.”


Long-Lasting Effectiveness

Seeing is believing, says Eric Tedford, Ph.D., technical product lead for fungicides at Syngenta. “When Trivapro first came to the market in 2016, a lot of growers didn’t commit their whole field. When they saw the benefits by having the untreated check right next to the treated acres, the results spoke for themselves.”

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Corn trials from 2016 and 2017 across the country continued to support these results. When Trivapro was applied at the critical R1 growth stage, it produced an 18.5-bushel-per-acre increase, on average, compared with untreated acres*. Overall, 79 percent of field trials showed a positive return on investment for acres treated with Trivapro.

Trivapro controls gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, southern rust, common rust, northern corn leaf spot, southern corn leaf spot, anthracnose leaf blight, eye spot and a host of other fungal diseases. “Trivapro contains three active ingredients that all provide broad-spectrum control of many diseases and improve plant health,” Tedford says.

Along with a strobilurin (a preventive fungicide) and a triazole (a curative fungicide that shuts down existing fungal lesions and keeps them from spreading), Trivapro includes Solatenol, which took 15 years and millions of dollars of research to bring to market. While Solatenol is part of the carboxamide fungicide family, which first debuted decades ago, Syngenta researchers found new ways to optimize this existing chemistry for longer-lasting, more powerful control.

“Discoveries of new modes of action are rare,” says Craig Austin, Ph.D., an agronomic service representative at Syngenta. “Since there’s only about one new mode of action discovered every 10 years or so, it’s important to find ways to deliver greater potency and persistence with these chemistries.”

Solatenol in Trivapro is 10 times more potent than the next most effective SDHI fungicide available today, Tedford notes. Solatenol has a strong affinity to the receptor site of the pathogen, which translates into higher potency and disease control. Solatenol kills the fungus by inhibiting respiration. “It essentially starves the fungus,” says James Hadden, Ph.D., technical product lead for fungicides at Syngenta.

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Solatenol also has an affinity for the waxy lipid layer (cuticle) on plant leaves. This prevents the fungicide from being metabolized rapidly, allowing Trivapro to work harder and longer. “It doesn’t punch out early like the competition,” Eury says.

Long-lasting effectiveness is especially important for controlling rust diseases, which rip open the plant’s cuticle and allow fungal spores to spread. “This causes the plant to die down instead of dry down,” Tedford says. “By preventing damage, plants stay green longer, allowing them to continue using the sun’s energy through photosynthesis and to better recognize their genetic yield potential.”

This contributes to other benefits that go beyond higher yield potential. Tedford shares the example of gray leaf spot in corn. “Under extremely high disease pressure, the leaves can be severely compromised by lesions and almost look like they have been shot by a machine gun. Each lesion or bullet hole marks a place where the nutrient and water delivery train in the plant has derailed. With the plant’s ability to photosynthesize compromised, the plant will start digesting starch in the stalk to feed the nutrient sink ear.”

“When Trivapro first came to the market in 2016, a lot of growers didn’t commit their whole field. When they saw the benefits by having the untreated check right next to the treated acres, the results spoke for themselves.”

By controlling this destructive process, Trivapro contributes to improved stalk strength and harvestability. “When you minimize lodging, our studies have found that you can combine 1.7 miles per hour faster in treated corn versus untreated corn,” Tedford says. “That equates to a $16-per-acre advantage to the grower from harvest efficiency and less volunteer corn competing with next year’s crop.”

This resonates with Bryan Gover, a corn grower from Stanford, Kentucky. When southern rust was prevalent in his area in 2016, Trivapro delivered a 20-bushel yield advantage. It also helped protect stalk strength.

“We’ve had standability issues in the past, because sometimes our harvest goes late into the fall,” Gover says. “We applied Trivapro fungicide on all of our corn acres in 2017 and saw much better standability.”

Proven Results Provide Peace of Mind

Consistent results from modern SDHI mode of action fungicides like Trivapro and Elatus equate to confidence at many levels. “Long-lasting residual control offers growers peace of mind, even under heavy disease pressure,” Hadden says.

The assurance of good standability, along with improved plant health, is good insurance year in and year out, adds Ragland. “When it comes to applying a fungicide like Trivapro, it’s just sound economics,” he says. “It’s something we include in our budget at the start of every year.”

*Based on 138 non-replicated trials in the U.S in 2016-2017.