Bacterial and fungal diseases reduce crop health, yield, and profitability long before symptoms appear, making proactive disease management essential. Systemic copper technology like ST Biologicals’ Instill provides broad-spectrum protection from the inside out while using less copper than traditional products.

Every growing season presents new disease challenges. Hot, humid weather, wet spells, and crop stress create the ideal conditions for bacterial and fungal pathogens to gain a foothold in your fields. Once present, they establish themselves in your soil and on your plants long before symptoms become obvious. At that point, protecting your yield becomes much more difficult and expensive.

Successful disease management in your fruit and vegetable crops isn’t reactive, it’s proactive. Effective disease management programs protect crops before pathogens have the chance to spread. Let’s take a look at proactive disease management and the solutions you can use to protect your crops and profit.

Why Disease Management Matters

Healthy plants produce higher yields and a better-quality crop. On the other hand, infected plants lose valuable photosynthetic capacity and divert energy away from growth. Common bacterial and fungal pathogens for fruit and vegetable crops reduce:

• Photosynthesis
• Plant vigor
• Nutrient movement
• Water efficiency
• Grain fill and yield
• Overall crop quality

Unfortunately for farmers, infections can begin days and even weeks before any visual symptoms appear. If you wait until signs of disease to show up before you start treating your crop, you’re giving pathogens a big head start. Lesions, discoloration, and wilting are signs that disease is well-established across your crop canopy.

Preventative disease management protects plants throughout the growing season. It ensures plants can thrive from seedlings through harvest. Crops continue to capture sunlight, produce energy, and fill their fruits more efficiently. Free from disease pressure, your crop is healthier and your marketable yield increases for stronger returns at harvest.

Copper: A Trusted Disease Fighter

Copper’s been used for decades as a bactericide and fungicide because it provides broad-spectrum protection against many different types of a pathogens. Copper ions interfere with critical cellular processes inside disease organisms, disrupting their ability to survive and reproduce.

Your father and grandfather’s copper-based disease control treatments had their limitations. Fixed copper products remain on the leaf surface, requiring higher application rates and leaving them susceptible to wash-off. There were also concerns about copper accumulation in the soil and crop safety.

Today’s broad-spectrum systemic copper-based products avoid these concerns. Instead of staying on the leaf, they are absorbed into and moved throughout plants via the natural process of translocation. This delivers disease protection throughout the plant, from root to fruit.

Systemic copper protection offers several advantages, including improved coverage throughout the plant and better protection of new growth while reducing the risk of phytotoxicity. From an application perspective, systemics offer better rainfastness compared to conventional copper products and lower overall copper use on your fields.

Meet Instill, a Copper-Based Systemic Bactericide and Fungicide

Instill, an ST Biologicals product, is a broad-spectrum systemic bactericide and fungicide that delivers effective disease protection with low-dose copper technology.

Unlike conventional copper sprays, Instill uses a patented delivery system that moves copper ions safely across the leaf cuticle and throughout the plant’s vascular system. Because these copper ions are readily absorbed into plant tissue, you need less Instill to deliver more protection than traditional copper products do. This improves crop safety, makes your disease control program more efficient, and offers a greater return.

At ST Biologicals, we believe disease protection should work with Mother Nature, not against her. The patented technology of Instill delivers broad-spectrum protection so you can proactively manage bacterial and fungal diseases for a more productive, profitable crop.

Looking for a smart approach to disease management? Get in touch with our mentors today. We’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen.

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