A new fungicide ingredient from the same family as the sclerotinia-fighting product boscalid has been cleared for use in several Canadian row crops and horticultural crops.
BASF Canada said last week it has picked up Canadian registration for Xemium, on which it submitted registration dossiers to ag chem regulators worldwide in 2010, billing it as a "next-generation" carboxamide product.
The new product’s Canadian label and a specific list of approved Canadian row and hort crops haven’t yet been released, but the product has been cleared for use already in some other countries against various diseases of potatoes, corn, soybeans and sugar beets.
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Growers in some nations are also already cleared to use Xemium against certain diseases in various fruit and vegetable crops as well as field crops such as wheat, barley and oil rapeseed.
"Xemium has the unique ability to move throughout the plant in a more consistent fashion to prevent diseases before they start," Scott Chapman, BASF Canada’s fungicide and seed solutions marketing manager, said in a release. "What’s more, rainfall revives Xemium to give more continuous protection during those critical periods."
Xemium, like other carboxamides, is a succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) inhibitor, which disrupts cell respiration in affected fungi. BASF said in 2010 that the new chemical allows for "continuous delivery of the active ingredient from leaf depots."
"Not only does Xemium protect areas where it has been applied, but its unique mobility properties also provide systemic activity to protect parts of the plant that may have been missed during application," BASF’s Canadian arm said last week.
BASF has marketed carboxamides since 1974 and introduced boscalid from that family in 2003.
The company’s current carboxamides in Canada include Lance WDG, a boscalid for use in canola, lentils, chickpeas and alfalfa seed crops. The company also markets boscalid in combination with pyraclostrobin in Pristine WG, used in hort crops, and Headline Duo, used against ascochyta in chickpeas.
The features in Xemium "will be a significant benefit to the fungicide market for more effective, consistent disease control with greater application flexibility for Canadian growers," Chapman said.
Related story:
BASF files to offer new class of fungicide, June 7, 2010
