Phosphites

Phosphites have become a popular and very common topic in the turf management world, but what exactly do they do for the turf? 

Phosphites are now commonly being used in the turf world for disease suppression, as plant defense activators that can strengthen the plant to enable it to fight in times of stress and as a biostimulant to strengthen the plant through root & shoot development, stress tolerance, etc. Because of phosphites ability to suppress disease and strengthen the plant to be capable of fighting off stress, phosphites are a very popular and important component of a managers integrated pest management program as there is more and more pressure to move away from or use less synthetic pesticides. Phosphites are generally less expensive than traditional fungicide products and will have less of a negative effect on harming non-target organisms when spraying.

Phosphites on their own have proven to reduce the incidence of disease in many cases by atleast 50% but have also shown that they can even have greater control than that. Research has proven that with the combination of both phosphites and traditional fungicides together that disease suppression is excellent and even better than the fungicides on their own. Because of this data it can give you as a turf manager a few options. When disease pressure is moderate to low the use of phosphites on their own may just be enough to control the disease within your thresholds. When disease pressure is high and phosphites and fungicides are used together you can expect very strong disease control or even the option to use a lower rate of fungicide without losing any of the expected control you would expect from fungicides alone at a higher rate. 

The addition of phosphites to turf will result in higher quality and more dense turf compared to areas where phosphites are not used. In trial data the plots with phosphites added were even able to show that the turf treated with phosphites were more dense and of better overall quality in comparison to the turf that received just fungicide applications. Trials have now been carried out to show that when phosphites are in contact with pathogen material that they will actually slow the development of the pathogen similar to a fungicide and then allow the plant to fight back against the disease.  

Turf Fuel carries two phosphite products called Phos-Sil Fuel Supreme and MZ-23. Phos-Sil Fuel Supreme is a combination of phosphite and silica. The phosphites will help to fight disease and enable plant defense mechanisms while the silica will harden cell walls and results in a tougher and more resilient plant. Phos-Sil Fuel is the ultimate plant stress and health product that will result in a very tough plant. 

   

MZ-23 is a combination of phosphite, sea kelp, potassium, manganese and zinc. This product combination will result in exceptional stress resistance, colour and turf health. It is great for driving roots but the combination of manganese and zinc are also great for in-season patch diseases and carrying out many of the plants most important jobs like photosynthesis.  

Turf Fuel is committed to developing products that are not like any other on the market and finding solutions to the problems that have been plaguing turf managers for years. They are committed to always improving the already great products they currently have. Turf Fuel has solutions available from the most simple aspects of nitrogen nutrition to the much more complicated solutions that you have been looking for such as stress management.