The Environmental Protection Agency has registered Vayantis fungicide seed treatment from Syngenta for use on soybeans and corn.
It contains the active ingredient picarbutrazox, a completely new active ingredient that targets key blight and damping-off diseases, such as Pythium and Phytophthora, according to a company news release. Picarbutrazox belongs to the tetrazolyloximes chemical group of fungicides and its mode of action is still unknown — Fungicide Resistance Action Committee Group U17.
It was discovered by Nippon Soda and licensed to Syngenta under terms of a global seed treatment licensing agreement.
The seed treatment will be available in selected areas for the 2021 growing season, with a full rollout for 2022.
“Pythium is the No. 1 seedling disease threat for corn, causing more damage than Fusarium and Rhizoctonia seedling diseases combined,” Dr. Dale Ireland, technical product lead for Syngenta Seedcare, said in the release. “With Vayantis we are thrilled to give growers another tool to help them combat Pythium and protect their crops. By providing this unmatched disease protection, Vayantis helps increase potential yield by an average of 2 bushels per acre on the broad acre and 4 to 6 bushels per acre in moderate- to high-pressure situations compared to other seed treatments.”
Additional Pythium activity options are also needed due to increasing resistance to current technologies. Documented cases of Pythium resistance and insensitivity to the active ingredient ethaboxam indicate that current seed treatments are not adequate to fully protect against the threat.
In lab testing, Vayantis demonstrated activity on all major Pythium species, including many isolates that show no sensitivity to ethaboxam.