By: David Reif, Northern Technical Sales Agronomist
Most farmers have heard, “Your yield potential starts going down as soon as you plant the seed in ground.” This saying carries a lot of merit. The environment can stress your crop on any given day, whittling away your peak yield potential over time. Protecting the seed right from the start is your crucial first step to avoiding yield loss.
As environmental uncertainty increases so do the associated plant stressors. With corn planting, the “perfect window” is always a moving target and depending on how many acres you grow, chances are you have to start planting in soils that are cooler and more saturated than desired. In these conditions you will likely experience slower seedling emergence and growth, making your crop more vulnerable to infection from seedling diseases like Rhizoctonia. These diseases slow root growth, interfere with the transportation of nutrients in the plant, and cause uneven crop growth - all of which impact your final yield.
Vive Crop Protection’s AZteroid FC 3.3 fungicide is optimized for fertilizer-compatibility using the Allosperse Delivery System, making it an excellent product to apply in-furrow with your starter fertilizer. AZteroid FC 3.3 will not only increase your level of protection from seedling diseases, but it also supports the growth of a healthy root system and early season vigor. Strip trials in 2021 showed that AZteroid FC 3.3 significantly increases yield compared to the untreated control and is comparable to other fungicides like Xyway™ LFR®.
While your corn seed likely already has some level of fungicide seed treatment on it may not be enough in extended cool and wet conditions. Seed treatments only last the first few weeks of planting before they start to lose efficacy1, whereas AZteroid FC 3.3 has been shown to have excellent soil residual, providing seedling protection beyond the length of control that a seed treatment provides.
One important thing to note is that AZteroid FC 3.3 is efficacious on seedling diseases like Rhizoctonia and supports early season plant growth, as shown in the picture below. Vive’s agronomic recommendation is to apply AZteroid FC 3.3 in-furrow to help protect your corn seedlings, increase early season plant health, and achieve maximum stand results. As the crop progresses, and the threat of foliar diseases increase, come back into the field with Vive’s 3-in-1 biological + chemical + Allosperse fungicide, AZterknot, at VT-R3 to help prevent diseases like Tar Spot, Rusts, Grey Leaf Spot, and Northern Corn Leaf Blight. This approach of protecting your crop at two very critical times for disease infection is a great way to mitigate the stress that you might face in any given season.
AZteroid FC 3.3 + Bifender FC vs untreated in Coldwater, MI
And here is the best part… both AZteroid FC 3.3 and AZterknot fungicides mix seamlessly with liquid fertilizers, micronutrients, other crop inputs and more! This is made possible with Vive’s unique active ingredient delivery system, Allosperse. This means you can get more done in one pass across the field, saving you time and resources.
Learn more about AZteroid FC 3.3 and other Vive products by visiting www.vivecrop.com.
1 https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2016/seedling-diseases-developing-corn