Flip the SCRIPT on your fungicide

“Action brands give superintendents exceptional disease control. If they back away to the non-Action brands, they may need to increase their spray intervals from 14-16 days to 7-12 days.”

“Our first trial with ASM was back in 2009 or 2010. I remember the trial really well because I knew [the active ingredient] was chlorothalonil but didn’t know why it was doing better than chlorothalonil itself.”

“The surprising thing was we had it in a Pythium blight trial, and it didn’t give complete suppression. No one would expect that, but it gave 60-65% suppression and chlorothalonil alone probably only gave 20% suppression. Then, Daconil Action was better even with anthracnose than straight chlorothalonil.”

— Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

“Action brands really give you an added bump in disease control compared to the [fungicide] active ingredient on its own. The example I like to use is fairway dollar spot control. One of the most difficult things to do in the Midwest is to consistently get 21 days of dollar spot control under heavy pressure. Specifically with Secure Action, we consistently get an extra 4-5 days of dollar spot control on fairways with Secure Action vs. Secure. When dollar spot pressure is up at 60 with the Smith-Kerns model, we like to tighten Secure Action down from a 21-day interval to a 17-day interval.”

— Paul Koch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

“At a course I visit a few times a year, they use to have significant anthracnose on their poa annua putting greens, and since they started to incorporate Daconil Action in a regular monthly fungicide program from early spring to late summer, they haven’t seen anthracnose, which is an eye-opening observation.”

“We’ve looked at Heritage Action relative to other comparable fungicides for root diseases like summer patch and take all patch, and we’ve seen noticeable increases with plant health as well as color and disease reduction, even compared to straight Heritage.”

— Steve McDonald, Turfgrass Disease Solutions

“Daconil Action and Secure Action have worked extremely well on anthracnose. Not just on the pathogen itself, but the Action brands have helped with the stress, not just the component that deals with the fungus, but also the stress-related protection.”

— Jim Baird, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

“We see a better turf response in the shade, specifically with Daconil Action, because it is controlling algae that is more common in shade. Even better is when you mix the Action brands with Primo Maxx. You see an enhanced tolerance to the shade and better performance under that shade stress. With the untreated plots, by the time we make six applications on a 14-day interval, they are yellow, chlorotic and full of disease with a turf quality of around 3. Daconil Weatherstik may have a rating of 5.5 of 6 and Daconil Action has a rating of 7.5 or 8. There is definitely a numerical difference by adding ASM.”

— Steve McDonald, Turfgrass Disease Solutions

“We had a trial that went from approximately Sept. 15-Dec. 15 with Appear II mixed with Daconil Action in a program with Briskway and Headway, targeting spring dead spot and take-all root rot. We started making applications again on Feb. 1 and collected clippings. We very clearly documented that those programs, compared to very good disease control programs, greened up faster. We actually had more growth. We've done this at a number of other golf courses, with one in particular on ultradwarf bermudagrass in the shade. The programs with Appear II, Daconil Action and Posterity had better quality, greened up faster and were denser in the spring.”

— Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

“I have never seen an issue [with turf safety] on ultradwarf bermudagrass. On creeping bentgrass, we trialed Action brands vs. non-Action brands in a growth chamber at 90 °F and had no issues at all. However, when we turned it up to 104 °F, they all looked bad with or without the Action component. At that temperature, the turf is already stressed, so even fungicides known to be safe for turf could be expected to cause stress.”

“I have not seen any issues with turfgrass safety with Action brands in a program except in extreme heat when too many products are put in the tank mix. That has nothing to do with my fear of safety. It has everything to do with trust with what they're going to mix in the tank.”

— Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

“We have not seen any negative response from the Action brands even at rates well above and beyond the label rates, so I am not concerned at all with phytotoxicity with the Action brands. It’s a question I get a lot. The more you learn about how ASM works and how it is stimulating the plant defense, you might think that if you're constantly stimulating the plant, that might burn the plant out over time, but we’ve never seen it. I’ve talked with many other researchers that have tested two and four times the label rates with Action brands and they’ve never seen it. It’s just not a concern.”

— Paul Koch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Safety with Action brands has been an eye-opening experiment. We have sprayed Action brands at 3 and 4 times the labeled rates on top of stressed bentgrass and stressed poa annua, and we have never seen any ill effect of any of the Action materials. Everyone knows that chlorothalonil has a white tint to it, so some of the times when we applied 3 or 4 times the rate of Daconil Action, the plots are paper white. That’s not phyto, it’s just the chlorothalonil sitting on the leaf blade. Once that mows off in a few cuttings, there is no yellowing or stunting. It has performed really well in more than 60 studies since approximately 2012 with Action materials, and we’ve never seen phytotoxicity even above labeled rates/intervals and tank mixtures relative to the same non-Action actives.”

— Steve McDonald, Turfgrass Disease Solutions

“We have conducted trials with at least 2x rates of Action brands. In multiple trials, we have tank mixed other commonly used products such as wetting agents and phosphites. Overall, we’ve seen excellent turf safety.”

— Mike Harrell, Ph.D., Southeastern Turfgrass Research Center

“It is always tough to perform drought studies in the field. Our data showed that the combination of Heritage Action watered into the rootzone at application, rotated with Daconil Action and then allowed to dry, provided a consistent improvement in wilt and overall stress.”

— Steve McDonald, Turfgrass Disease Solutions

“Growing creeping bentgrass in the transition zone can be very challenging, especially during the heat of the summer. We have had times where we had an irrigation problem and couldn’t apply water like we wanted to. Those plots with the Action brands tended to hold up and recover a little better when we remedied the problem.”

— Mike Harrell, Ph.D., Southeastern Turfgrass Research Center

“In particular, with the combination of Appear II and Action brands, we saw turf recover 2 to 3 days faster from aerification.”

— Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

“We saw that the tank mixes with Appear II, Primo Maxx and Daconil Action 2 weeks after a June aerification were slightly quicker to heal than other treatments that didn’t include Action. The Action plots were smoother and quicker to fill in by probably 2 to 3 days.”

— Steve McDonald, Turfgrass Disease Solutions

“Particularly Secure Action and Daconil Action, in combination with Appear II, have been some of the most remarkable results I have seen with fungicides in regard to salinity. The best quality was with Daconil Action and Appear II. There is very little-to-no loss of turf density compared to a competitive application that also contained a pigment.”

— Jim Baird, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

“Resistance management is hugely important with diseases like dollar spot and anthracnose. I think the Action products play an important role in resistance management. ASM is classified by FRAC as a different mode of action, and there have been no noted cases of fungicide resistance to ASM.”

— Paul Koch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Appear II in a program with Daconil Action and Secure Action is outstanding. We have research showing that this program in the fall improves spring green-up on ultradwarf bermudagrass.”

— Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

“It's important to remember that dollar spot builds throughout the year. Fall is a really important time for the following year’s disease control. We see that improved dollar spot control in the fall leads to less dollar spot the next year. Particularly with dollar spot response, we've seen a lot of success with the Action brands related to disease control.”

— Paul Koch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison