This report outlines a fungicide evaluation field trial conducted during the 2023-24 growing season, evaluating the efficacy of a range of fungicides targeting oomycetes for managing cocksfoot downy mildew pathogens.
Key Points:
- Moderate cocksfoot downy mildew pathogen pressure was observed in this fungicide evaluation trial, influenced by favorable early-season weather conditions and reduced by hot, dry weather during seed filling.
- Phoenix® Fungicide (folpet, Group M4) and Foschek® (phosphorous acid, Group P07) effectively reduced pathogen symptoms.
- Ridomil® Gold MZ WG (metalaxyl-M (mefenoxam) + mancozeb, Group 4 + Group M3), Gem® Fungicide (fluazinam, Group 29), and Curfew® (cymoxanil, Group 27) showed limited efficacy.
- Foschek® reduced seed head bleaching and may offer some level of control against the cocksfoot downy mildew pathogen, warranting further research.
- Economic analysis showed no differences in margin-over-cost (MoC) values among fungicide treatments.