Modern gardening is rarely dispensed with tillage of plants and plants with special preparations - fungicides. The literal translation of this term from the Latin language means "killing mushrooms."
But the practice of applying plant protection has significantly expanded this concept by combining substances toxic not only to fungi, but also drugs that fight against other pathogens of crop infections. Fungicides are chemical or biological preparations used to prevent, prevent, or treat diseases of garden crops.
A bit of history
Various plant diseases - spotting, rust, rot - have been familiar to humans since people learned to grow certain crops. Even then, the very first recommendations for their necessary protection appeared. Even before our era, Homer mentioned the fight against plant diseases by fumigation with sulfur, and Democritus pointed out the prevention of rot by spraying crops with infusion of olives. With the beginning of a new era, people learned to prevent grain diseases by soaking them with wine or storing cypress in shredded foliage. In the Middle Ages, diseases known at that time and methods of their treatment were described and classified.
The breakthrough came with the development of the chemical industry and active research on the etiology of many diseases and the biological characteristics of their pathogens. Most fungicides used today were synthesized recently - in the 20th century. Modern plant protection products - single-component or combined preparations - can achieve significant success, however, the problem of diseases has not yet disappeared and needs constant improvement of technologies, methods and means of crop treatment.
How do fungicides work?
They destroy spores or mycelium of fungi and microorganisms that are the causative agents of various diseases. These plant protection products are classified according to the nature of the effect, the purpose of use, the nature and selectivity of the action, as well as the distribution in plants.
Classification of fungicides
Due to the fact that the same fungicide can affect different cultures in different ways, the classification is very conditional. In addition, the use of different doses of the substance for unequal periods varies greatly. However, fungicides are divided into:
- Protective agents used to treat healthy plants in order to prevent morbidity.
- Therapeutic (eradicating) drugs, the treatment of which is necessary after signs of the disease are found on the plant. The active substance of such a fungicide stops the growth of the pathogenic sphere that caused the problem, which leads to the recovery of the culture.
- Systemic fungicides are chemicals absorbed by a plant and moving through its vascular system and protecting new shoots that have grown after processing. These fungicides have a therapeutic and prophylactic effect.
- Contact preparations protecting only those parts of the plant with which they are in contact. Such fungicides are means that have only a protective effect, they always depend on the effects of precipitation.
- Seed dressers - chemicals used in pre-sowing seed soaking to protect future seedlings from diseases and pests, as well as in the treatment of bulbs, tubers, corms and rhizomes of plants before planting. Today, there are drugs as narrowly targeted - either prophylactic against possible diseases, or against pest microorganisms - and complex, combining both of these directions.
Toxicity and precautions for their use
Fungicides are toxic drugs, and you need to be sure of the appropriateness of their use at home. Before using such drugs, you should familiarize yourself with safety procedures for their use.
There are several immutable rules, the implementation of which is mandatory in order to avoid poisoning, which can provoke fungicide. The instructions attached to each drug offer:
- to store preparations separately from food and medicine in a dry, dark, cool place at a temperature not exceeding +35 ° C and not lower than -10 ° C;
- ensure inaccessibility to children and animals;
- do not prepare the working solution in the dishes used in the kitchen;
- use the solution immediately; it is not stored;
- carry out processing in the absence of children and animals;
- to prepare special clothes for such work;
- do not eat, drink or smoke during work;
- at the end of the treatment, wash your face and hands;
- rinse used containers for solution preparation and sprayer parts in running water.
Necessary help for poisoning
If caution when working with drugs has not been observed, then the necessary measures should be taken without delay. If the drug accidentally gets inside, you need to drink 0.5 l of water and induce vomiting. If an active substance enters the skin, it is washed under running water for at least 10 minutes. It is very dangerous to get the drug into the lungs or eyes. In such cases, the eyes are washed with water and a two percent solution of hydrogen peroxide, and inhaled with volatile substances are taken to fresh air. Despite the first aid provided, it will not be out of place to contact a medical institution, grabbing the packaging label from the drug used.
Modern protective equipment
The use of fungicides has become a necessity today, so you need to know exactly which drugs can be used in some cases, and which in others. We list the most common modern fungicides, get acquainted with their action, advantages and disadvantages.
"Fundazole": instructions for use
"Fundazole" (powder) is an extensive systemic fungicide to combat many types of fungal diseases. Suitable for preventive and therapeutic spraying with the threat of fungal infections. It is used as a seed dresser before planting. It has a slight unpleasant odor. Hazard class - 3. The active substance of foundationazole is benomyl, which penetrates the plant through the roots or aboveground parts and is converted into carbendazim - a substance that has excellent fungicidal properties. Most of the baseazole accumulates on the surface of the plant, while a smaller part that penetrates inside can protect areas that do not even interact with the drug.
Ways to use Fundazole
Treatment with fungicides, in particular with Fundazol, can be carried out in different ways:
- together with watering;
- spraying the plants during the growing season;
- seed dressing before planting.
"Fundazole", the instructions for use of which is attached to each package, are dissolved in an amount of 1 g in 1 liter of water. This is a working solution. Its use is possible no more than two times per season.
Seed dressing is recommended one month before sowing. Joint watering with Fundazole is necessary when symptoms of a plant disease occur, and spraying is a preventive measure that is taken even before the onset of painful manifestations.
"Topaz": a fungicide based on penconazole
“Topaz” (emulsion concentrate), like Fundazole, is a systemic fungicide of therapeutic and prophylactic action to protect plants from fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, rust, oidium, etc. “Topaz” is a odorless fungicide that is moderately dangerous for humans, animals and fish, but not toxic to birds and insects. It is strictly forbidden to process plants during flowering. Hazard class - 3.
The most effective "Topaz" for the protection of stone fruit, fruit, berry, vegetable and ornamental crops, as well as grapes from powdery mildew and other fungi and infections. Preventive treatments carried out with an interval of 7-14 days, suppressing infections caused by pathogens of various diseases, at the beginning of the growing season, show the best results.
How to apply "Topaz"?
The fungicide consumption is normalized depending on the phase of development in which the plant is located and on the degree of its damage. Weak solutions are used at the beginning of the growing season or with a small infectious background; more severe - in the completed period of leaf development or a significant infection. After processing the culture with the drug, it is advisable to use contact fungicides to fix the result. The instructions for use of "Topaz" make the following recommendations:
- for fruit trees and shrubs (currants, gooseberries, peaches, grapes), as well as vegetables and strawberries, the contents of one ampoule of the drug are dissolved in 10 l of water;
- for flower crops (roses, carnations, asters, etc.), the solution is more concentrated - one ampoule of the drug is dissolved in 5 liters of water.
"Topaz" is a fungicide, the price of which is low, and the benefits of its proper use are invaluable. Spraying plants should be carried out in calm, dry weather, uniformly treating the entire surface of the plant. The solution is prepared immediately before work. The following treatments, if necessary, are carried out after 10-14 days, when the protective period expires.
Chorus fungicide
To protect stone fruits and fruit trees, vineyards and garden strawberries from scab, moniliosis and powdery mildew, the Chorus fungicide, developed on the basis of cyprodinil and produced in the form of water-soluble granules, is used. “Chorus” is a fungicide that has been successfully used to combat coccomycosis, klyasterosporiosis and monilial rot of fruits on plums and cherries, with fruit rot and scab on pears and apple trees.
Processing "Horus" is carried out by spraying, the first of which is carried out before flowering, the second - in the growing season, but no later than 2 weeks before harvesting. It is better to carry out the second treatment after 2 weeks after the cultures have faded. The working solution is prepared in the following proportions: 3 g are dissolved in 10 l of water. the drug. The average consumption of funds per tree is from 2 to 5 liters of mortar based on the size of the tree and the type of sprayer.
"Chorus" is a fungicide, the peculiarity of which is that it shows the greatest effectiveness at low temperatures (3-10 ° C), which is an advantage of this drug, because it can be used successfully in the early spring, when, basically, the infection of horticultural crops with moniliosis occurs. Experienced gardeners are not recommended to process trees when the air temperature rises above 22 ° C. The protective period after treatment lasts 7-10 days. Another advantage of the use of "Horus" is its high therapeutic effect on already affected plants.
Standards for the use of fungicide "Chorus"
For different plants, the concentration of working solutions is different. To process apples and pears, a solution prepared from 2 g of the product per 10 l of water is required. Spraying stone fruit crops effectively with a solution of 3 g per 10 l of water. The concentration of the solution for processing garden strawberries on 1 acre is 6 g per 5 liters of water.
Fungicides for grapes, in particular “Chorus”, are prepared in the same proportions as for strawberries - 6 g of substance per 10 liters of water. The maximum possible number of treatments per season for strawberries is 2, stone fruits (except plums) and grapes - 3; pome seeds and plums - 4 times.
Timely and competent processing of crops helps gardeners to cleanse summer cottages from pathogens of various infections and to increase the yield of high-quality and healthy fruits.