Is your blight protection as strong as it could be?

Crusade maximises coverage and protection

With a changing blight population and even more aggressive genotypes, achieving good fungicide coverage is critical to safeguard crops. The newest highly aggressive genotypes 36_A2 and 37_A2 join the aggressive 13_A2 and 6_A1 in being able to rapidly exploit any weaknesses in spray coverage within the canopy. However, the umbrella-like structure of the potato plant makes it very difficult to attain good fungicide coverage, particularly to the lower leaves and stems. Leaves are good collectors of vertical moving spray only in the upper canopy. The addition of anti-drift agent Crusade to fungicide sprays will help to optimise coverage to all parts of the crop canopy; delay the onset of blight and will help to maximise fungicide performance.

Crusade delivers the following benefits:

• Optimised dose on the target
• Optimised coverage to all parts of the canopy
• Extends the spray window

Reasons to integrate Crusade into your blight control strategies now:

• Aggressive blight strains are able to rapidly exploit weaknesses in spray coverage within the canopy and even the strongest fungicides can have weak spots due to poor coverage
• Crop canopies are closing fast and are hard to penetrate with fungicide – Crusade increases the proportion of droplets in the “optimum” size category for drift reduction and target leaf retention, ensuring the upper and lower canopy is protected with fungicide
• Effective with flat fan and low drift nozzles – Crusade has been designed to reduce droplets at either end of the spray spectrum – it coalesces ultra-fine droplets into small droplets so they are less prone to drift, and it splits very coarse droplets (a feature of low drift nozzles) into smaller droplets so they are less prone to bounce/run-off the leaf. The result is an ideal droplet for maximum protection
• Tested and proven independently – Crusade has been rigorously tested and proven in SRUC, Eurofins, Syngenta and BASF blight trials over the last 5 years with a range of fungicides where it is has been shown to improve blight control and blight free yield
• Convenient and flexible – Crusade can be applied throughout the life of the crop, there are no timing restrictions and it is compatible with all fungicides, insecticides and foliar feeds

Maximising fungicide performance

Ruairidh Bain has been working with the anti-drift agent Crusade in SRUC’s potato trials since 2014 and confirms Crusade helps to maximise the performance of a wide range of active ingredients. Crusade has been proven in trial and on-farm with: Amphore Plus, Axidor, Curzate M WG, Hubble, Infinito, Invader, Kunshi, Lieto, Mandrake, Nautile, Option, Profilux, Percos, Presidium, Ranman Top, Revus, Rhapsody and Tizca.