Coverage, rainfastness and flexibility are the benefits of this enhanced fungicide.
⋅ BY AMANDA HUBER ⋅
Precision chemistry; that’s the tagline of Vive Crop Protection. In other words, when you apply a chemical or biological on your farm, it needs to go straight to the problem without causing issues, says Greg Esco, U.S. sales lead. To do that, Vive solutions contain the Allosperse Delivery Technology, a patented nano-polymer that influences how proven active ingredients behave in the jug and the field to simplify crop production and deliver results to growers.
“This technology uses patented polymer ‘shuttles’ to carry an active ingredient where it needs to go,” Esco says. “Allosperse is what our company is founded on. It allows us to make the active ingredient particle nearly 60 times smaller than anything else commercially available. This allows our product to cover the surface area more effectively.”
Dries Stronger, Stays Longer
Phobos FC is a prothioconazole fungicide that contains the Allosperse technology and provides broad-spectrum protection against a wide range of foliar and soilborne diseases while maximizing crop performance. It is a FRAC Group 3 fungicide.
Esco says a benefit is that it’s more rainfast than similar products.
“We say that we don’t dry faster, we dry stronger. It takes the same amount of time for our product to dry, but because of the smaller particle size and Allosperse, when you get a rain event right behind that, we have 50% more active ingredient remaining on the plant surface. It stays on longer. Because of the smaller particle size, we have more surface area coverage.”
It’s also systemic and gets into the plant faster as well, he says.
“There’s nothing worse than putting a fungicide on the crop at noon, and at 3 p.m., it rains. And you’re wondering, ‘how much fungicide did I lose?’ You’re going to retain more active ingredient on that leaf surface in that plant with this product,” he says.
Tankmix And Application Friendly
Esco says Phobos fungicide is easy to use and tankmixes well with everything from inoculants and other in-furrow products to micronutrients and crop inputs like Vive’s AZterknot fungicide.
“In the tank and jug, our formulations are more stable and pour out of the jug easier and rinse out of the jug easier,” Esco says. “We are also tankmix friendly. If it’s just a straight product or added in-furrow with an inoculant and won’t cause any problems with that tankmix.
“From a foliar standpoint, mixing it with a nutritional product such as boron or sulfur is also possible. You won’t have stop ups or grit in your tips.”
Esco says the Allosperse technology lets you have that ease of mind that the products you put in the tank will stay in suspension.
“If you get rained out, you’re not going to stop up your system. Those are the two things that we do that someone else does not,” he says.
Phobos is labeled for all of the problem diseases in peanuts, including cylindrocladium black rot (suppression), early leaf spot, late leaf spot, leaf rust, leaf scorch, pepper spot, rhizoctonia limb rot, sclerotium rot, southern blight, web blotch and white mold or southern stem rot.
Flexible Timing
Esco says the product also offers flexibility, which is something growers need.
“You can mix it with tebuconazole or with azoxystrobin, and it can go out at the 60 and 90 days after planting or 75 to 105 days after planting timings, depending on pressure,” he says. “Because of our particle size, the result is longer and better disease protection, especially at the end of the interval and right before the next spray. There is still protection of that crop from disease.
“If you get delayed from getting into the field with the next spray, there is still protection on the crop,” Esco says. “Until growers try it, I know they will think ‘how different can it be?’ But it is.” PG
