Published on 06/08/2025
Words: Bayer
Uncontrolled, diseases like Ramularia in barley and speckled leaf blotch (SLB) or leaf rust in wheat can really damage growers’ yields, grain quality and bottom line.
The most effective approach is to treat crops preventatively, yet the prevalence and progress of the diseases is very unpredictable because they’re so dependent on conditions.
In most cases, farmers have a choice between innovative and older fungicides, sometimes within the same mode-of-action groups.
The challenge is to choose the right mix of both and put together a program that will do the job if disease pressure quickly ramps up, be as cost-effective as possible, but not rely too much on old chemistry.
Some of that older chemistry is already less effective than it used to be. Other products will soon start to fail if they are relied on too much.
BASF offers the right combination of foliar fungicides to tick every box on the wish-list.
The key ingredient in its most recent releases is Revysol (mefentrifluconazole), a game-changing next-generation DMI active.
Revysol is one of the two actives powering Revystar and the sole active in Revylution.
The Revysol molecule is very different to those of older triazoles.
It is the first isopropanol-azole, with a unique adaptability that allows it to bind much more strongly to mutated pathogens that have reduced sensitivity to the other triazoles, with the potential to go on working when the older triazoles can’t.
Another important feature is that Revysol’s ultra-rapid absorption greatly increases its rainfastness and its ability to work in colder conditions than the other triazoles.
Fungicides powered by Revysol will still deliver excellent performance through adverse weather.
Revystar was launched in 2021 as the new benchmark product for controlling Ramularia in barley.
While no longer as far ahead of the competition as it was, it remains a front-runner and is now cheaper and more convenient – because it doesn’t need tank-mixing – than using its main rival.
It pairs Revysol with Xemium (fluxapyroxad), an advanced SDHI (Group 7) active that also has multiple advantages over older actives from the same group.
Revylution was launched in 2022 to give wheat growers a bit of extra flexibility.
They can use it on its own or in tank-mixes to increase the disease coverage.
Some growers who initially used Revystar on their barley are now using Revylution instead, in a tank-mix with a fungicide from another mode of action group.
That use pattern reaffirms the outstanding effectiveness of Revysol.
The BASF team, naturally, welcomes its use in either formulation, but is also keen to remind growers that the co-formulated Revystar will do just as good a job on Ramularia at lower cost.
At the other end of the spectrum of old and new chemistry is Comet, a remarkably durable fungicide which was launched way back in 2003 and is still working as well as ever.
It was the first pyraclostrobin on the market and last year BASF released the results of independent trials to show that it’s still the best available.
Comet comfortably outperformed a generic pyraclostrobin in controlling rust and net blotch and produced an extra 240 kg/ha in barley yield, worth about 10 times the difference in cost between the two fungicides.
Given that the best disease control programs combine the best of both innovative and well-established fungicides, BASF’s three foliar fungicides should be among the first names on the team sheet every season.