Bayer CropScience launches new dual action fungicide
New Zealand potato and onion growers now have a new tool in the battle against crop diseases with the launch of Melody
Duo®, a new fungicide from Bayer CropScience.
Melody Duo combines two active ingredients – iprovalicarb, which is a systemic fungicide with a novel mode of action;
and propineb, a powerful protectant fungicide.
Bayer CropScience marketing manager Peter Fisher says the new fungicide is particularly important for controlling late
and early blight in potatoes and downy mildew in onions, two of the most costly foliar diseases of the respective crops.
“Melody Duo offers New Zealand potato and onion growers a new tool to control these diseases and to help manage the
development of resistance in these diseases.”
Of the two active ingredients, iprovalicarb is a new systemic fungicide with protectant, curative and anti-sporulant
properties active against a range of fungi, including late blight and downy mildew.
It comes from a new group of active substances and has a new and unique mode of action. Importantly, there is no
resistance or cross-resistance to iprovalicarb, making Melody Duo a superb resistance management tool.
The other active ingredient, propineb, is a contact protectant fungicide active against a number of fungi, including
early and late blight in potatoes and again downy mildew in onions.
It is the active ingredient of the well-proven Bayer fungicide Antracol®.
According to Fisher, propineb enhances the protectant capabilities of iprovalicarb and provides an in-built resistance
management strategy for blights and downy mildew.
Melody Duo is formulated as a low dust, water dispersible granule and is an easy and pleasant-to-use product. The two
components of Melody Duo are rapidly degraded in surface water and in soil where neither active ingredient, or their
metabolites, leach to penetrate deeper soil layers.
ENDS