Chemical control of foliar diseases in soybean depends on cultivar and sowing date

Abstract

The aim was to study the effect of early application of two fungicide mixtures on the control of Asian rust and powdery mildew, as well as on grain yield in five soybean cultivars at two sowing dates. The experiment was carried in the experimental area of FAMV/UPF. The cultivars A 4910 RG (super-early), BMX Apolo RR, A 6001 RR and Fundacep 55 RR (early) and Coodetec 214 RR (moderate), established at 13/11/2007 and 3/12/2007 were used. Trifolia of these cultivars were treated twice with the fungicides ciproconazol + azoxystrobin (Priori Xtra®, 0.3 L ha-1 plus Nimbus® adjuvant 0.6 L ha^-1) and epoxiconazol + pyraclostrobin (Opera®, 0.5 L ha^-1), in three moments 1: pre-closure of the space between the lines and 21 days after; 2: pre-closure of space between rows and R5.1 stage (10% of beginning seed); and 3: R1 (beginning bloom) and R5.1 stages. The severity (% of affected leaf area) of powdery mildew and number of lesions cm² of Asian rust were evaluated. After that plants were harvested, the thousand grain weight (g) and grain yield (kg ha^-1) were quantified. The experimental design was a split-plot with four replicates, where the main plot were the five cultivars, and the subplots were the control treatment (untreated plants) and the six chemical control programs. Tukey and t-Student tests (p≤0.05) were used for separation of means of treatments and seasons, respectively. In general terms, foliar application of fungicides controlled both Asian rust and powdery mildew, as well as generated an increase on the thousand grain weight and grain yield. However, there seems to be an interaction among soybean genotypes and sowing date. Thus, our results allow us to infer that the chemical control of leaf diseases in the soybean crop depends of the cultivar and sowing date.