Fungicides aren’t just for crop diseases anymore. The fungi-fighting products also boost crop performance, size and yield.

Research by agricultural chemical manufacturer BASF has found that canola sprayed with fungicide displayed greater stress tolerance, larger leaf size and stem thickness, and did a better job of taking up nitrogen. The research was conducted in western Canada and reported in The Western Producer . SpraySmarter.com offers a full line of fungicide-application products on its liquid application page.

After it is applied fungicide stays on a plant for only two to three weeks “but you can see an enhancement in growth, primarily root system and leaf system,” said Russell Trischuk, technical marketing specialist with BASF Canada. “That change in architecture actually just leads to a more robust plant that can manage periods of stress more effectively.”

Farmers in Canada and the United States have increased their use of fungicides in recent years to combat a host of fungi-related diseases in row crops. Little did any of them know that the benefits of those applications could go well beyond disease control.

Canadian growers using fungicide on canola as early as the 1990s remarked how green their fields looked compared to fields where no fungicide had been applied. In studies, BASF researchers discovered that pyraclostrobin, the active ingredient in the company’s Headline fungicide and similar products, increased production of the nitrate reductase enzyme in plants. The enzyme converts nitrates such as urea and anhydrous ammonia into a form that plants use for amino acid production, which escalates protein production.

What’s more, the fungicide-treated plants exhibited a 15-20 percent improvement in nitrogen utilization, Trischuk said. He added growers should not reduce their nitrogen application rates because of that utilization boost, because nitrogen is a primary building block for plants.

BASF conducted fungicide trials in 91 canola fields in 2012 and 2013. On average, plants grew 12 percent taller, set 20 percent more pods and produced 15 percent thicker stems, compared to untreated fields. In fungicide-applied fields plants also aborted 8 percent fewer pods.

“We see a very dramatic increase in the size of roots as well,” Trischuk said. “Everybody drives by their fields and they look at the top 48 percent of their crops and they kind of forget about the other 52 percent that is under the ground.”

The BASF research is ongoing and includes field trials in corn.

By Steve Leer

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