No wrong choice

Dr. Lisa Beirn uses an analogy to describe her role as a Syngenta technical services manager.

“You can think of us like extension agents for the industry,” she says.

Based in New Jersey, Beirn covers a Northeast and Mid-Atlantic territory spanning from Virginia to Maine. She supports sales and registered products in the region, develops agronomic programs for those products, and coordinates research on how to use them.

Lots to cover. Lots to know.

Ron Townsend can relate to Beirn’s job duties. Townsend is a Syngenta technical services manager for the Western territory. His territory stretches from Colorado to Hawaii, a geographically stunning and agronomically diverse region with snow-covered mountains, arid deserts and temperate coasts.

Beirn and Townsend are ideal sources when learning more about developing a disease control program. We recently turned to them to better understand the Posterity fungicide line. The line debuted when Syngenta launched Posterity in 2018. The company released Posterity XT and Posterity Forte two years later. Differences exist among the fungicides — all three feature ADEPIDYN technology as an active ingredient, but Posterity XT and Posterity Forte also possess propiconazole and azoxystrobin at different rates — so we asked Beirn and Townsend about how to find the right fit for your course.

How would you describe the Posterity brands in your own words?  

Townsend: The first word that comes to mind when we talk about Posterity is powerhouse. Between the ADEPIDYN, which is a strong SDHI on its own, then you factor in propiconazole and azoxystrobin, two of the better-known fungicides in their classes … I think of these three different combinations as a whole.

Beirn: Posterity as a solo product is very strong on its own, and then you add in these other active ingredients in Posterity XT and Posterity Forte, and it makes it much more broad spectrum. Between all three of them, I think you have a fit for whatever type of turf you’re growing and whatever type of disease you’re trying to control. There’s a lot of options and flexibility there.

How are the Posterity brands different than other Syngenta fungicides?

Beirn: Posterity is our latest SDHI chemistry, so that’s part of it. What we did by developing Posterity XT was take what was a great product in Headway and pair it with the powerful ADEPIDYN technology to make it Posterity XT. The benefits are that it is broad spectrum and you have three modes of action now for resistance management concerns, which is very important.  Using  newer chemistries and employing new tools are important when we think about resistance management strategies. 

How are superintendents in your region using Posterity?  

Beirn: In the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, there area really two different uses where it’s fantastic. I see a lot of usage with dollar spot. It’s an excellent dollar spot material, and then  as you creep down into the Mid-Atlantic and some warm-season turf areas, it’s a really phenomenal spring dead spot product as well.  

Townsend: Posterity is such a great dollar spot material. But we don’t see the dollar spot pressure out here as much. The interesting part is the SDHI class of chemistries is active on spring dead spot as well, so being able to use that on Bermudagrass down in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona is phenomenal as a rotation partner. 

How are superintendents in your region using Posterity XT?  

Townsend: It’s the broad-spectrum of disease control that we are able to see, with summer patch control being the big one. But it’s also a good rotational partner with the Microdochium pressure in the mountains, and that’s how I have built it into a lot of our fungicide programs.  

Beirn: Posterity XT has wide utility for a lot of diseases. You can water it in for summer patch control and still achieve some dollar spot control. There are also people using it for foliar diseases, so Posterity XT is really timed well in that summer window when you can pick up dollar spot, brown patch and gray leaf spot activity. You really get a broad-spectrum product with Posterity XT. 

How are superintendents in your region using Posterity Forte?   

Beirn: This one actually surprised me a little bit. When we launched Posterity Forte, we thought it was a primarily southern product for things like spring dead spot, which it’s very excellent on. However, there are quite a few superintendents who do use this in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic for very early spring applications targeting dollar spot or very late fall applications targeting dollar spot. Because of the loading of the active ingredients, you get a very good slug of material for dollar spot to knock back that population, but you also have two other actives in there for some of these lesser-known things like leaf spot that you can see in the spring and fall time. 

Townsend: That increase loading of ADEPIDYN in there tends to really do the trick on spring dead spot on fairways — in particular, from what we have seen in the research trials and on golf courses. 

What’s the best Posterity option to use in the summer on cool-season turf and what makes that specific brand effective during the hottest months? 

Beirn: For the folks dealing with cool-season turf in the Midwest and Northeast, I like Posterity XT because you are targeting multiple diseases with that application. Of course, there are situations when you get further into the northern Midwest, perhaps Minnesota or even Wisconsin, where dollar spot is the primary concern. In that type of situation, Posterity would be a fine product to recommend. 

Are there situations where it makes sense for a superintendent to have more than one of the Posterity brands in their program for different uses? If so, can you give an example for cool-season turf as well as warm-season turf? 

Beirn: I know it can be confusing with all three. If you’re dealing with primarily dollar spot, Posterity is an excellent choice for you. However, if you have concerns about brown patch and summer patch in addition to dollar spot, then Posterity XT is an excellent choice for you. If you’re looking for something for those fall applications, Posterity Forte is a very good fit to do some cleanup for leaf spots. If you’re talking about Bermudagrass,  that’s primarily where you would find a use for Posterity Forte. 

Townsend: I echo that. Posterity XT in the springtime does a really good job as a cleanup app, is how I look at it. Then you have Posterity Forte as the backbone for any spring dead spot issues that you have on Bermudagrass.

Are there key rotational products you recommend using with Posterity brands for increased turf quality and resistance management? 

Beirn: Certainly multi-site contact fungicides like Secure Action and Daconil Action are key, particularly with something like dollar spot. When it comes to targeting dollar spot, which is prone to resistances with SDHI chemistries, I like to recommend no more than two applications back to back. In those cases, I would recommend including something like Secure Action or Daconil Action. 

Townsend: I would add Primo Maxx planth growth regulator to the mix, even though it’s not a fungicide. The addition of  Primo Maxx works well together, especially down in the desert where water quality is really an issue – it works well in a combination with fungicides for turf quality. 

What are the tank mixing capabilities of Posterity brands and what should superintendents know about tank mixing them?  

Beirn: All three are very flexible with tank-mix partners. When we talk about Posterity XT and Posterity Forte, they are SE formulations, which generally lend themselves to tank mixing very well. When we think about using these products for something like dollar spot that can be prone to resistance, particularly for SDHI chemistries, one of the biggest approaches that I like to recommend is to tank mix your SDHI products with something like a multi-site contact to help with that resistance management strategy. That would stand true for these Posterity-branded products when you are trying to treat for something like dollar spot. 

Townsend: It works out really well as a tank mix. For snow mold, one of our guarantee programs is Posterity XT and Ascernity. That combination is really strong on pink snow mold and gray snow mold.

Explore your perfect Posterity Brand 

Visit GreenCastOnline.com/PosterityBrands or scan the QR code 

Posterity

Active ingredient: ADEPIDYN® technology (pydiflumetofen)

Strengths for:

• Warm-season turf: Spring dead spot
• Cool-season turf: Dollar Spot

Posterity Forte

Active ingredients: ADEPIDYN® technology (pydiflumetofen), azoxystrobin, propiconazole

Strengths for:

• Warm-season turf: Spring dead spot
• Cool-season turf: Early spring or late fall applications targeting dollar spot, leaf spots

Posterity XT

Active ingredients: ADEPIDYN® technology (pydiflumetofen), azoxystrobin, propiconazole 

Strengths for:

• Warm-season turf: Spring dead spot
• Cool-season turf: Cleanup and broad-spectrum control, including summer patch, dollar spot, brown patch and gray leaf spot