The Environmental Protection Agency has approved AZterknot fungicide from Vive Crop Protection. AZterknot fungicide is the world’s first three-way fungicide combination that harnesses the benefits of biologicals, the performance of chemistry and the ease of Allosperse, say Vive officials.
Allosperse is proprietary nano-polymer technology developed by Vive Crop Protection that allows previously incompatible products to be mixed and applied in one application. Vive officials say this reduces fuel, time, and water usage. AZterknot will be available this summer through distributor and retail commercial channels in the United States.
Registered in a broad range of crops for soil and foliar applications, AZterknot provides the plant health and disease control benefits of two active ingredients: Reynoutria extract and azoxystrobin, the disease-fighting active found in AZteroid FC 3.3 from Vive Crop Protection. These two modes of action combine with Vive’s patented Allosperse technology to provide unparalleled handling ease and efficiency, systemic disease control and activation of the plant’s natural defense mechanisms, say company officials.
“Biologicals are a large and growing segment, because they add additional performance and environmental benefits,” says Darren Anderson, CEO of Vive Crop Protection. “But until now, delivering them to the field has been a challenge. For the first time, we have used Vive’s patented Allosperse Delivery System to combine a biological and a chemical in the same jug. This provides growers the best of both worlds, allowing them to save valuable resources and money while increasing crop yields.”
“AZterknot is the first step in mobilizing the power of both biological and chemical active ingredients, using our Allosperse technology,” says Anderson. “Vive is working on a pipeline of products to integrate a broad range of biological actives with Allosperse and other trusted chemistries to provide grower solutions that were not possible before.”
“One of the greatest challenges for biological products (is) in wide distribution and competition with conventional synthetics,” says Joshua Haslun, a senior analyst on the Emerging Ecosystems in Agrifood and Health team at Lux Research. “Solving for shelf life and compatibility issues when used in combination with synthetic products would be a blockbuster advance for a biological product. With this in mind, Vive’s current partnership with Marrone represents an opportunity to prove the additive value of the Allosperse technology.”
“AZterknot opens up a world of possibilities for growers looking for the plant health benefits of biologicals and the power of trusted chemistry in one easy product,” says Dan Bihlmeyer, vice president of sales and marketing at Vive Crop Protection. “They’ll find that AZterknot activates the plant’s natural defenses and inhibits pathogen growth while providing systemic control of yield-robbing diseases.”
Vive officials say the EPA approved AZterknot fungicide to address fungal diseases in important food, fiber, and fuel crops. There is a growing demand, and an unmet need for a solution to address the annual U.S. market of over 200 million acres of corn, rice, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, sugarbeets and potatoes, say Vive officials.
Based on grower case studies, Vive products are estimated to have saved U.S. farmers 34 million gallons of water, 189,000 gallons of fuel and 15,000 hours of farm labor since 2018, say Vive officials.