With much of the Midwest facing colder-than-normal temperatures, excess moisture and planting delays, Syngenta agronomists are encouraging growers to consider 3 tips to optimize the performance of late-planted crops.

1) Don’t skimp on your soybean seed treatments.

• Because cold, wet soils are favorable environments for seedling diseases like Pythium and Phytophthora, a robust fungicide seed treatment is essential. We recommend CruiserMaxx® Vibrance Beans®, a combination of separately registered products, which not only delivers broad-spectrum protection against damaging early-season diseases and insects but also supports strong emergence and standability in a variety of soil temperatures.

2) Evaluate the application flexibility, residual control and crop safety of your herbicide.

• While the optimal herbicide application timing for preventing early-season weed competition is pre-emergence, selecting a herbicide that can be applied at both pre-emergence and post-emergence can help mitigate the negative effects of weather-related application delays.
• Choosing a herbicide with long-lasting residual will help ensure that delays between application and planting won’t result in weed control that will run out too soon.
• Syngenta recommends that growers consult with their retailers to ensure their herbicide formulation includes a proven safener, which provides extra protection for the plant as it emerges and allows for a wider application window.
• For corn, we recommend Acuron®, Lexar® EZ or Lumax® EZ herbicides, which have crop-safe application flexibility from pre-plant to 12-inch corn.
• In soybeans, we recommend making a pre-emergence application of BroadAxe® XC, Boundary® 6.5 EC, or Prefix®, each containing 2 SOAs. Boundary 6.5 EC and BroadAxe XC can be followed up with a post-emergence application of Flexstar® GT 3.5 for 2 additional SOAs. Boundary 6.5 EC can also be followed by Prefix® residual herbicide, one of the most effective, convenient pre-emergence or early post-emergence options. Prefix can be applied pre-emergence and followed by a post-emergence glyphosate application, or applied early post-emergence.

3) Plan for a robust disease scouting regimen.

• Crops planted later in the season may be more vulnerable to infection from soil-borne diseases like Northern corn leaf blight, gray leaf spot and white mold—and foliar diseases like frogeye leaf spot and Southern rust. Additionally, less mature plants can be more vulnerable to infection from pathogens that have had time to build population size.
• In light of the increased vulnerability to disease that late-planted crops may face, Syngenta recommends that growers employ a robust scouting plan and monitor disease reports carefully to accommodate timely fungicide applications that can help crops reach full maturity and yield potential.
• If scouting reveals a need for a fungicide application, Syngenta recommends Trivapro® fungicide. Trivapro is the hardest-working, longest-lasting broad-spectrum fungicide available for corn and soybeans. With 3 active ingredients and 3 distinct modes of action, Trivapro provides preventive and curative disease control and long-lasting residual to combat disease late into the season.

We’ll dive into more detail about each of these tips over the next week.