Innovation with Real-World Impact

By Pat Jones   

In 35 years covering this industry, I have seen a steady flow of game-changing turf technologies: PGRs, improved seed varieties, vastly better irrigation systems, sophisticated cultivation equipment, high-efficiency fertilizers, etc. But major innovations on the disease management side seem to come less frequently due to the massive cost and effort required to bring a new fungicide to a relatively small market like golf.

As a result, broad-spectrum actives that are safe for turf and provide more than a week or so of efficacy have been harder to find. And the holy grail – a summer-safe DMI that works on a bunch of major diseases – seemed out of reach as more and more options fell out of rotations. Supers had largely given up on the idea.

But a few years back, when we started to hear about testing and trials for Maxtima^® fungicide and Navicon^® Intrinsic^® brand fungicide (both based on BASF’s Revysol^® brand DMI fungicide technology), ears perked up a bit because it promised to deliver the goods: superb control of dollar spot, fairy ring and more without fear of phyto. Many of the top plant pathologists in the world studied it…and liked it a lot. The question remained how the technology would perform in the real world of turf.

So, two years after Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide hit the market, the folks at BASF asked me to independently benchmark how supers who’ve tried the products like them. 

I created and distributed a survey to let users rate the product and, more importantly, give some feedback – good, bad, or otherwise – to BASF. More than a hundred of you responded in detail. Here are the results of that study and what I learned.

After two years on the market, superintendents don’t like Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide…they love them.

I’ve done quite a few product satisfaction studies like this in the past and I’ve never seen 90% of superintendents say they liked something new this much. Even more remarkable is that 60% of superintendents who have used one or both say they are VERY satisfied with the results. The comments I got from supers across the board – north, south, high-end, modest budget, etc. – felt almost giddy because the products work so well.

Why? What’s behind that kind of enthusiasm from veteran supers who face some of the toughest disease challenges out there? I took a close look at their verbatim comments to find out.

Superintendents clearly feel good about these products two years into their use. What about the university researchers who studied the experimental compounds that eventually became Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide? What have they observed since the launch in 2019?

I asked now-retired Clemson legend Dr. Bruce Martin how he’d sum up the impact of these DMIs over the past two years: “It continues to be good stuff in both formulations,” he said. 

“One thing we’ve confirmed more recently is its absolute safety on overseeded grass (Poa trivialis) on bermudagrass greens even when seed were just germinated, and plants were very young. “We also confirmed excellent efficacy for mini ring disease, and we observed significant disease suppression beyond 28 days from the last application for mini ring. I would not suggest users should expect this control in all instances, but results do demonstrate very good disease control when other IPM measures are implemented.”

“What has impressed me the most about working with Maxtima and Navicon is how versatile these fungicides are and how they have enhanced spray programs across the country.”

— Cameron Stephens, PhD
Technical Marketing Manager, BASF

Finally, we asked those 80+ superintendents who have tried the Revysol products in the past two years one more question: How likely would you be to recommend these products to a colleague?
 

Yup, 9 out of 10 said they would. That blows my mind a little because, in my experience, supers are often hesitant to endorse or recommend anything. Yet, in this case, more than half of them (53.5%) said they were highly likely to do just that for the Revysol products.

And the scientists at BASF have done just that this year…deliver exceptional new chemistries for turf pros, including:

• Encartis^™ fungicide, the ideal fungicide combo to “bookend” your disease control program to start and finish strong. It’s an easy-to-use, pre-mix formulation, combining the strength of both boscalid and chlorothalonil for strong preventive defense for up to 28 days and fast curative action.
• Alucion^™ 35 WG insecticide, BASF’s first turf insecticide, a dual-active, non-RUP pyrethroid which quickly and effectively manages surface feeders like billbugs, chinch bugs, nuisance ants and annual bluegrass weevils.
• Finale^® XL T&O, a new twist on a proven, non-selective, contact herbicide formulation with enhanced active ingredient loading, pinpoint accuracy and fast control of the toughest weeds at lower rates.

“We’re really thrilled that superintendents have so much confidence in Maxtima and Navicon.... But now we’re ready to see Encartis, Alucion 35 WG and Finale XL T&O make their own impact. It’s an exciting time to bring new innovations and solutions to a great market like golf.”

— Brian Thompson,
Turf Marketing Manager, BASF