Greensboro, N.C., USA, March 19, 2019 – To help golf course superintendents monitor for dollar spot, the most prevalent disease on courses nationwide , Syngenta has enhanced its dollar spot alerts. Based on the Smith-Kerns Dollar Spot Model, the alerts now offer season-long text and email notifications plus the ability to forecast disease development risk five days into the future. Superintendents may sign up at GreenCastOnline.com/DollarSpot to be notified by email or text, when conditions in their area are conducive to dollar spot development.
“Syngenta is always researching not only new products but also new digital technologies to help superintendents manage their turf,” said Stephanie Schwenke, turf market manager at Syngenta. “By working with the researchers who developed the original dollar spot model, Syngenta was able to digitize the model, bringing convenience and automation to superintendents.”
The dollar spot prediction model was developed by Damon Smith, Ph.D., associate professor and extension specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jim Kerns, Ph.D., associate professor and extension specialist, N.C. State University, along with researchers in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Tennessee, Connecticut and New Jersey . It uses weather indicators to predict when conditions will be conducive for dollar spot development.
“The model itself is basically a logistic equation that you plug in the parameters, such as relative humidity, mean and max air temps, as well as how much risk you're willing to take – 20, 30, 40 percent, whatever it might be,” explains Kerns. “Essentially it spits out a probability of whether or not you're going to have disease. One of the things we are most proud of is it allows superintendents at their own facility to decide for themselves how much risk they are willing to accept. In our research, we found that 20 percent was the most accurate prediction.”
Once a superintendent signs up, they will receive their first notification of the season when dollar spot pressure in their area is forecasted to reach a 20 percent risk threshold in the next five days, which will help them prepare for a preventive fungicide application. After the first alert, superintendents can also elect to be notified of their dollar spot risk on seven-, 14-, 21- or 28-day intervals.
To sign up for the alerts, superintendents can visit the Syngenta Dollar Spot Solutions website, where they will also find more dollar spot resources including trial data, researcher interviews and control options, including the latest dollar spot fungicides from Syngenta, Posterity® and Secure® Action™. Posterity holds strong for up to 28 days of dollar spot control, and Secure Action includes a boost of acibenzolar-S-methyl to protect against biotic stress, including dollar spot, and abiotic stress, including drought and heat.
1 Specialty Consultants, 2018. A Strategic Analysis of the U.S. Professional Turf and Ornamental Pesticide Market: The 2017 Season.
2 Smith DL, Kerns JP, Walker NR, Payne AF, Horvath B, Inguagiato JC, et al., 2018. Development and validation of a weather-based warning system to advise fungicide applications to control dollar spot on turfgrass. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0194216. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194216
Join the conversation on X with @SyngentaTurf and by using #DollarSpotSolutions.
About Syngenta
Syngenta is one of the world’s leading agriculture companies. Our ambition is to help safely feed the world while taking care of the planet. We aim to improve the sustainability, quality and safety of agriculture with world class science and innovative crop solutions. Our technologies enable millions of farmers around the world to make better use of limited agricultural resources. With 28,000 people in more than 90 countries we are working to transform how crops are grown. Through partnerships, collaboration and The Good Growth Plan we are committed to improving farm productivity, rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more visit www.syngenta.com and www.goodgrowthplan.com. Follow us on X at www.twitter.com/Syngenta and www.twitter.com/SyngentaUS.
Media Contacts:
Mark LaFleur
336-632-6138
mark.lafleur@syngenta.com
Kelsea Mullane
919-870-5718
kmullane@gscommunications.com
Web Resources:
GreenCastOnline.com/DollarSpot
Twitter.com/SyngentaTurf
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This document may contain forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as ‘expect’, ‘would’, ‘will’, ‘potential’, ‘plans’, ‘prospects’, ‘estimated’, ‘aiming’, ‘on track’ and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.
©2019 Syngenta, 410 Swing Road, Greensboro, NC 27409. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration and proper use. Action™, GreenCast®, Posterity® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Secure® is a registered trademark of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, LTD. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.