JAMES GILLIS
MILLWOOD, GA
Georgia Grower Applies Fungicide Early To Benefit Corn Health
Situation
James Gillis wears two hats. As a partner in Gillis Brothers Inc., Gillis grows corn and he also recommends and sells crop protection products to other growers who farm near Millwood, Ga. For his acres, and for the customers he serves, it’s important that products work well and, when possible, cut production costs.
About three years ago, Gillis began applying fungicide to his corn crop. “Seeing that additional plant health, obviously, it should translate into a better yield,” he said. “Corn treated with a fungicide doesn’t have lesions on the leaves like you might have in untreated corn.”
However, while Gillis used fungicides on corn and recommended them to his customers—he didn’t like having to pay for an extra trip across the fields to apply them. It would benefit me and other growers not to have that expense, he observed. “Every time you go over the field, it is expensive.”
Solution
Understanding Gillis’s desire to limit trips through the field, Cheminova rep. Ricky Lord recommended that Gillis try a new product FORTIX™ Fungicide. As Lord explained, FORTIX is a combination of fluoxastrobin—a fast-acting strobilurin and flutriafol—the most residual and systemic of all triazoles. The complimentary modes of action provide broad spectrum activity against a variety of plant diseases.
A primary benefit of FORTIX, emphasized Lord, is that it can be applied early as a tank-mix partner, without adding a separate trip—saving time and money.
Gillis elected to use FORTIX on about 400 acres of corn. “We were able to apply ourselves,” reported Gillis. “We felt like we saved money. We tank-mixed it so we were going over the crop anyway.
Gillis tank-mixed FORTIX, at five oz. per acre, with a glyphosate herbicide. “The corn that we applied it over was still small enough that we used a regular tractor sprayer,” he noted.
Asked about yields, Gillis noted that his FORTIX-treated corn yielded best with 190-plus bushels per acre. However, he cautioned, “This was not the best year in our area to evaluate a yield advantage. We had a really, really wet summer with a lot of drowning in all of our fields. At the same time, we did observe that the plants treated with FORTIX were healthy right up until the drowning situation.”
In corn, Fortix Fungicide provides season-long control against Gray Leaf Spot, Southern and Northern Corn Leaf Blight, Northern Corn Leaf Spot, Anthracnose Leaf Blight, Common and Southern Rust and Eyespot.
Due to the exceptionally heavy rains, when reports came in of an area outbreak of Southern Rust, Gillis over-sprayed all of his corn with Stratego® Yield. “It was precautionary—as this was our first year with FORTIX. It is impossible to tell if we needed the Stratego,” he observed.
Success
FORTIX proved its worth, concluded Gillis. “By being able to apply it early, it obviously gave the plant early plant health,” he said. “Absolutely, next year, we will use FORTIX on 100 percent of our acres. We think FORTIX has a real good fit and we will be promoting it very strongly.”
Having evaluated FORTIX in his own corn—and during a tough, wet year, Gillis knows how he will advise his customers. “I am going to tell growers—I think FORTIX will make you money. You are going to get better early season plant health—health that you wouldn’t get if you didn’t put it out.
“When you can apply FORTIX yourself, when you are already going over a crop--usually with a herbicide, it is not costing you anything for application,” he added. “It is a great opportunity to put on a fungicide that, hopefully, will last you all season long.
“You can tank-mix it, and put it on early in the life of the plant, that is going to justify using it,” said Gillis.