Syngenta has beefed up its fungicide, Amistar, promising enhanced protection for brassica growers.

The new approval for Amistar TOP for use in brassica crops now gives growers the existing benefit of full rate azoxystrobin, plus the addition of difenoconazole, according to the manufacturer.

The combination is said to give excellent disease protection coupled with strong curative activity against all key brassica diseases.

Syngenta’s speciality crops manager, Bruce McKenzie, explained: “In an era when growers are looking to avoid routine prophylactic fungicide inputs it is increasingly difficult to rely on purely preventative fungicides. The power of a higher rate of difenoconazole in Amistar TOP gives valuable added curative properties, to ensure growers can still consistently produce top quality brassicas.”

The label approval Amistar TOP is for the control of White blister (Albugo candida) and Powdery mildew (Erysiphe cruciferarum). When used for control of other diseases, Amistar Top applied as a protectant treatment will also control Alternaria (Alternaria brassicae and Alternaria brassicicola) and Ring spot (Mycosphaerella brassicicola), Syngenta says.

Amistar TOP is described as an easy to use low-dose liquid formulatio. At the recommended application rate of 1 l/ha Amistar TOP includes 200g of azoxystrobin (equivalent to 0.8 l/ha of Amistar) and 125 g of difenoconazole (equivalent to 0.5 l/ha of Plover). Growers can make two applications a year, along with continued use of Amistar and Plover in accordance with FRAC guidelines.

Syngenta reports that in cabbage trials last year, Amistar TOP reduced Powdery Mildew infection in cabbages from 15 percent in untreated plots to less than 0.5 percent.

It was also said to have completely eliminated Alternaria when the untreated crop had 11 percent infection.

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