The first seed treatment to combat aphanomyces is on the market.
Intego Solo received full registration for use on lentils, chickpeas, beans and soybeans late last year. It is the only Group 22 seed treatment or fungicide registered for pulses in Canada. It is also registered for cereals and oilseeds.
Nufarm Agriculture also received emergency registration from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency for use of Intego Solo to suppress aphanomyces in peas in Manitoba, Sask-atchewan and Alberta. The registration expires March 19, 2016.
Aphanomyces is a widespread and virulent root rot disease that has rapidly become a major headache for western Canadian pulse growers.
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The American Phytopathological Society says aphanomyces is the most devastating pea disease in the world.
“Pulse production in Western Canada is now under serious threat from aphanomyces,” Graham Collier, technical services manager for Nufarm, said in a news release.
“Weather conditions across the Prairies over the past few years have significantly increased disease pressure, and growers have been left with no control options until this emergency use of new Intego Solo.”
Research trials conducted by Agriculture Canada show the product delivers 40 to 70 percent suppression of the pathogen, with an average of 50 percent.
“This is a beginning,” said Collier in an interview. “This is what we could have out so there is something for growers this year, and we’re going to continue to build on it.”
One four litre jug of Intego treats 709 bushels of seed at a suggested retail price of $4.23 per bushel.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers cautioned that Intego only suppresses aphanomyces; it doesn’t eliminate the disease. Growers are advised to continue using good management practices, including having a proper rotation, choosing a good field, using quality seed, avoiding compaction and managing fertility.
Sabine Banniza, a plant pathologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre who is Western Canada’s expert on the disease, was blindsided by the news of the new seed treatment option.
She had told growers a few weeks earlier during a webinar on aphanomyces that there would be no seed treatment options until at least 2016.
“Obviously, it is really good that there is something coming,” said Banniza.
However, she is not able to endorse the product because she has not seen data on it. She said she would be in no rush to treat her pulse seed with Intego if she was a grower be-cause of the lack of independent trial data.
“At least this year, I think, I would still rely primarily on extending the rotations rather than using this.”
However, pulse prices are attractive, so growers with high risk tolerance might want to give it a try, she added.
Intego will be tested in field trials in Saskatchewan and Alberta this year as part of a study on root rot.
Banniza hopes the trials will indicate how effective the seed treatment is, but that will depend on the weather. Not much difference between treated and untreated seed is likely if it is a dry spring.
Collier said Intego should be used in conjunction with another seed treatment product because it contains only one active ingredient, ethaboxam, which does not control other pathogens such as fusarium, rhizoctonia and ascochyta.
Intego does not contain a colour-ant, which is required for seed treatments. That is another reason it should be combined with another seed treatment.
