This month I'm going to talk about a couple of new fungicides that are coming out, or are available now. Both of these products will give you some important new options to look at when thinking about next year's fungicide program.

Daconil Action
Huh? A new Daconil fungicide? You bet! This product from Syngenta combines Daconil(chlorothalonil) with a plant defense activator that has been in the crops market for some time Actigard (acibenzolar s-methyl). So the first question is what is a "plant defense activator"? Well, the way the product works is it turns on plant defenses that fight the initial infection process, so you might say it 'primes' the plant to be ready for the various pathogens you might not want burrowing their way into the turf plant. Turning these defenses on is a good thing provided you apply it preventatively. We have tested Daconil Action in our tests, and one of the other exciting things that it delivered was the suppression of Pythium blight. Now, it is not a stand alone product when it comes to that disease, but it is good to know that it is providing protection from Pythium when you apply it. Again, preventative applications are needed in order to derive the benefits of this product.

So where does this product fit in your program? It has the best fit where you would normally apply Daconil. So, any applications made during the season for diseases like dollar spot, anthracnose, brown patch, and now Pythium blight would benefit from a Daconil Action application. The key is to make sure you have a healthy plant, and are applying the product preventatively. If you apply it when the plants are under stress from disease or abiotic reasons it will not provide the additional plant defense portion of the activity, and you would be better off choosing an alternative product in those specific situations. It won't cause problems in those situations, it just won't provide the defense part of the activity that you would be seeking.

Other researchers have indicated that it also provides some relief from the "bacterial wilt" issue. I hesitate to officially recognize this disease, because it is still far from resolved with respect to what the cause of these problems are. However, I will tell you that some researchers have used Daconil Action on areas that have traditionally had this issue and have observed some relief so consider this product in your rotation if you have had problems with this scourge.

Velista
This is a new fungicide from DuPont that is very exciting because of the terrific activity it brings to the table. I remember first testing this fungicide as a code number and remarking to David McCall what a good fungicide this was going to be. It hasn't let the research community down. Velista (penthiopyrad) is a new fungicide in the SDHI class of chemistry which includes fungicides like Prostar and Boscalid. However, unlike those two fungicides Velista has activity on multiple diseases. Dollar spot, brown patch and anthracnose all have been tested in my research programs, and Velista has performed excellently on these diseases. We also included it as a part of our standard fungicide program this season, and again it provided excellent control of whatever diseases were trying to infect plants this year product consideration particularly if you have had issues with one of the three diseases I mentioned here.

Final Thoughts
These two products are exciting to see coming to the market because we haven't had many truly new products lately. Most of the new products have been combinations of things we already use, perhaps with a little twist. These two products both are new because they bring active ingredients to the table that weren't currently used in turfgrass management. Consider how these products fit in your programs, I'm confident you will be as excited as the researchers were when we first tested them!

Dr. Brandon Horvath is a column writer for Landscape Supply, Inc.'s LSI Connections, a newsletter that is sent to our partners in business once per month. Dr. Horvath is a professor and a plant pathologist for The University of Tennessee Turf Program.