Seed Treatments: A First Line Of Defense

from Peanut Grower January 2022

A Difference You Can See

Protecting seed against the myriad of possible pathogens takes a good chemistry combination.

By Amanda Huber

Seed treatments are one of the fundamental inputs available for peanut. The importance of this first line of defense was reinforced in 2020 by seed quality issues following the 2019 growing season. As Tim Brenneman, University of Georgia research plant pathologist says, in 2020 researchers and producers found out that peanut seed carry a lot more Aspergillus, in this case Aspergillus niger, than was previously thought.

“There is seedborne inoculum, such as Aspergillus, plus soilborne inoculum and a whole laundry list of things that can get on seed. That’s one reason so many different chemistries are needed in a seed treatment — to control that range of pathogens,” Brenneman says.

Progress Made On Seed Treatments

Unfortunately, 2020 also exposed a vulnerability in one of the two primary seed treatments.

“As we moved into the planting season, Dynasty PD had been one our main seed treatments, and it was discovered that Aspergillus was highly resistant to one of the main components of that treatment.”

Since then, Rancona V PD has been the primary treatment. Brenneman says it offers a three-way mix of fungicides with different classes of chemistry than that of Dynasty PD, which showed the Aspergillus resistance.

“The good news is we’ve made a lot of progress. UPL and Syngenta have come up with new chemistries. Rancona V PD has continued to work well in 2020 and this past year. It’s still holding up good, but UPL is looking to add new chemistries to Rancona because the pathogens keep changing,” he says.

New Product Registration

Syngenta received registration of its new product, Trebuset, in December 2021. Trebuset Peanuts is a premix formulation of five active ingredients found in the Apron, Maxim, Dynasty, Miravis and Vibrance fungicide brands.

“Trebuset Peanuts is a game-changer when it comes to protecting peanuts from early season stress,” says Steven Patton, product lead with Syngenta Seedcare. “We’ve seen impressive field results for reducing critical diseases such as Aspergillus crown rot and post-emergence damping off.”

“Five active ingredients make for a robust formulation,” Brenneman says. “Miravis, which most farmers are familiar with, is highly effective on Aspergillus. That has really strengthened that combination of chemistries.”

A Good Stand Is Critical

Getting a good stand is critical to optimum yield, and it takes effective seed treatments to get there. “If we don’t have a good stand, we’ll have issues. One of those issues you fight is weeds. Another problem is tomato spotted wilt virus, which is reemerging.” Brenneman says.

“I had more in my plots this year than I’ve had in a while. Spotted wilt has not gone away, and getting a good, uniform, solidly emerging stand of peanuts is the foundation, culturally, for managing spotted wilt,” he says. “We don’t always have uniformly high-quality seed each year, so we need those seed treatments.”

Fortunately, 2021 was much different with a better quality of seed overall. However, that makes Brenneman’s job even tougher.

“In my seed treatment trials, I try to find compromised seed each year because if you get high-quality seed, you don’t learn much because it all comes up. I had to search far and wide to find some compromised seed.

“I found a seed lot that had 65% germination, and it had been wet and dry repeatedly. You could smell it in the bag.

“As I’ve always said, ‘You can’t take a seed treatment and make sorry seed a good seed.’ But I think we just about did that this year. We had some plots where we planted five seed per foot of row and we got four plants per foot with some of those seed treatments. It was a good commercial stand of peanuts, and I would have never thought you could do that with that seed we started with. Our seed treatments can make a huge difference.” PG

Temporarily called “New Dynasty,” by UGA plant pathologist Tim Brenneman, the new seed treatment from Syngenta Crop Protection, Trebuset Peanuts, has shown good results in testing and will be available for the 2022 planting season.

Shield your peanuts and keep them from being conquered by white mold with the powerful protection of ExcaliaTM Fungicide by Valent U.S.A. With highly systemic and translaminar activity, Excalia provides long-lasting disease control peanut growers can depend on. Stay one step ahead in the battle against white mold, even under heavy pressure, with Excalia.