New 'Strobie' Tests Well

There's a new fungicide coming to town. BASF Professional Turf expects the Environmental Protection Agency to soon register and approve Insignia fungicide, a new strobilurin broad-spectrum fungicide. BASF says research on Insignia shows it will effectively control at least 15 major pathogens.

Pyraclostrobin, the active ingredient contained in Insignia, is the third strobilurin to come to the market. Others are azoxystrobin (Syngenta's Heritage) and trifloxystrobin (Bayer's Compass). Strobilurins feature low use rates and longer application intervals.

"Control of a wide range of turfgrass diseases caused by fungi from various classes is a major strength of pyraclostrobin," Wakar Uddin, assistant professor of plant pathology at Penn State University, wrote in a recent issue of TurfGrass Trends. "The extraordinary broad-spectrum nature of this new strobilurin will undoubtedly become a strong component in an integrated disease-management program when the product becomes available to the market."

BASF and university researchers have been testing Insignia since 1996. Research on the product indicates excellent performance across several turfgrass diseases, including brown patch, gray leaf spot, anthracnose and Pythium blight, BASF states.

Henry C. Wetzel III, BASF's biology project leader of fungicides and nematicides, says he's excited about Insignia because it will be the first "strobie" with "proven efficacy" against bentgrass dead spot, a turf disease that seems to be more severe on newly established greens under
4 years old.

"Bentgrass dead spot is a new emerging disease in golf turf," Wetzel says of the disease, whose initial symptoms appear as small reddish spots about 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter. "We're seeing it more when golf greens are constructed. So if we have a fungicide with strong biological activity on bentgrass dead spot, we would feel much better about the use of Insignia on newly constructed golf greens."

Several superintendents tested Insignia on their courses last summer, including Bob Zuercher, certified superintendent of the Blackmoor GC in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Zuercher, who says brown patch is a regular turf disease in the area, sprayed Insignia on July 10, Aug. 3 and Aug. 24 on four Tifdwarf bermudagrass greens. Insignia applications were made in strips with a check plot for comparison.

"Any place we used Insignia, we didn't have the disease," Zuercher says. "There was a noticeable difference in the spray area vs. the check-plot area."

Zuercher uses Primo plant growth regulator on his greens. He suspects there's a brown patch strain that's attracted to heavily managed greens.

"You can see it in the underlayer and the thatch," Zuercher says. "I think Insignia will clean it up. It might be a good match with Primo."

Another strong feature of Insignia is that research shows it can suppress dollar spot.

Steve Potter, certified superintendent of Woodholme CC in Pikesville, Md., was impressed with Insignia's activity against dollar spot on a bentgrass fairway. He made several test applications to the fairway, cut to seven-sixteenths of an inch.

"The dollar spot came right to the line and quit," Potter says. "I know it was the Insignia working. I got about about 90 percent control."

Potter also set up trials in his roughs for gray leaf spot, but the disease did not hit hard last year so the trials were not conclusive. Potter says he'll use Insignia again this year, either as an experiment or part of his regular fungicide maintenance program.

Wetzel suggests superintendents work Insignia in as part of a rotation program with other non-strobilurin fungicides to treat dollar spot.

"If you're in an area that doesn't have significant dollar spot pressure, you'll get control," Wetzel says. "But if you're located from the northern edge of the transition zone to further north where dollar spot is a big problem, you'll get significant pressure of the disease , but you won't be able to control it."

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