Growers at the recent BASF Crop Protection “Fields of Innovation” symposium heard from Technical Market Specialist Dr. Jennifer Holland about the three pillars of plant health – disease control, growth efficiency and stress tolerance, and how Headline fungicide plays a role in those.
“Headline fungicide really controls the pathogen in a preventative manner,” she explained, adding it keeps the pathogen from germinating and getting through the surface of the plant.
As far as the growth efficiency portion of the equation, Jennifer said Headline helps increase photosynthesis by up to 20 percent. “Even one of the growers spoke to that today: the longer you can keep your crop green, the better your potential is at the end of the season.”
And finally, the better the plant grows, the better its roots are, helping the third pillar: stress tolerance. “Stress tolerance and growth efficiency are actually related to one another by photosynthesis,” Jennifer said. She added that during heat and drought, the openings on the leaf surfaces will shut down, stressing the plant by building up heat in it… much like when car windows are shut on a hot day. Headline helps make sure those openings, stomates, stay open, allowing for a free flow of air and gases in and out of the plant.
Listen to an interview with Jennifer here: Dr. Jennifer Holland, BASF