It seems logical for farmers to wait until they see a disease before they apply a crop fungicide. BASF Performance Driven Fungicides Technical Marketing Manager Kim Tutor says that is too late. “It all comes back to this idea of a latent period, that period between when that fungus initially infects that plant and when you can actually see a lesion present on the plant.,” said Tutor. “With some of these really problematic diseases, like tar spot on corn, the latent period is upwards of two to three weeks so that’s two to three weeks it’s been inside that plant robbing it of nutrients and of water and reducing its overall yield potential before you can even see a lesion with the naked eye.” That’s really why it pays to be proactive instead of reactive and apply fungicides before disease infection can impact yield and the return on investment. Listen to the full interview.
