Electis - top performance on both foliar and tuber blight

UK - May 26, 2006

Following five seasons of successful commercial use and over eight years of intensive trials, Electis can still claim one of the top spots with regard to its performance on both foliar and tuber blight in potatoes, according to Dow AgroSciences.

"When Electis was first launched five years ago, it was heralded as a significant new potato blight product as it showed excellent performance on all strains of potato blight as well as equal or superior performance to the market standards, fluazinam and cymoxanil plus mancozeb.  Even after several new products entering the market since then, Electis remains one of the top performers against foliar and tuber blight and as such occupies a significant position in any successful blight control programme," reports Andy Leader, Principal Biologist for Dow AgroSciences.

"When the major blight fungicides were assessed by a panel of independent European industry experts, Electis was one of the few that was given the top three star rating for foliar blight control and protectant activity.  Independent trials support this view with excellent performance against its competitors applied alone and within programmes.  In a year where blight pressure was high, British Potato Council trials showed that a programme consisting of two treatments of Epok (mefenoxam plus fluazinam), followed by Electis applied from stable canopy onwards and then alternating with Ranman TP (cyazofamid plus adjuvant) up until desiccation gave the best control of foliar and tuber blight," explains Mr. Leader.  

This high performance is due to the combined activity of the two effective active ingredients, zoxium and mancozeb, Andy explains.  "Electis provides three lines of defence against the blight fungus: it stops spore germination of the pathogen: it stops the germ tube from growing thereby preventing fungal penetration and also it stops zoospore formation.  This latter activity is unique to Electis and, when it comes to tuber blight protection, has lead to regular inclusion in any blight programme targeted at tuber blight."

"Zoospores are responsible for causing tuber blight and Electis prevents their formation.  Other fungicides act on zoospores once they are released. For example fluazinam paralyses the zoospore flagella, cyazofamid inhibits zoospore respiration and fluopicalide disrupts membrane proteins in the zoospores.  So effective tuber blight prevention needs to start early with one or two sprays of Electis at stable canopy onwards, which can be sequenced or followed by the other zoospore killers.  This approach has resulted in the best tuber blight control in three years of BPC trials.  In six trials the Electis and Ranman programme gave the best tuber blight control over the three years.  It reduced tuber blight from 16% blighted tubers in the untreated down to just 3%," says Mr Leader.

"When stable canopy  is reached, blight sprays used from then on need to provide strong foliar blight protection, offer good tuber blight protection, have a strong anti-resistance position and be highly rainfast.  Electis provides all the necessary criteria for such a spray," concludes Andy.