By DoMyOwn staff
What the heck are FRAC Codes and why do we need to know them? Paul discusses fungicide roation, FRAC codes, and fungicide resistance some more to try and help you understand how important it is.
Finally rain has rolled out, sunshine, no clouds. Perfect day for flying.
Which also means the weather is finally nice enough to do this.
Much, much better and much needed!
That seriously felt amazing to finally bust out the mower with clear blue skies, lots of sunshine. That just, that felt really good. I can't tell you how depressing it is to sit around and just watch it rain and not be able to get out here.
But now that that's finally done, I can move onto the other project for today, it's time to apply the second fungicide, my class 11, in my fungicide program. But let me explain first.
Ok, so May ninth is when I did my first fungicide application with my class three. I waited 14 days and did my second application with the class three on May 23, and then flash forward to June sixth, which is today when I shot this video, but I'll release it probably this Friday the 8th or 15th. I'm now going to do my first application with the class 11. But it's going to be my third application in the full rotation program.
Before we actually get to mixing up the class 11 fungicide and putting it down back here, I wanted to circle back a comment we got on the Fungicide Rotation video, which I'll link that in the description box below, if you haven't seen it.
Great question and comment, they wanted to know what is a class three and class 11 fungicide, and as far as that goes, what is class one through ten.
So the simpliest answer to this, according to the fungicide resistance action committee, which makes up the FRAC codes, the classification or group numbers that you see on fungicides, so fungicides may have the same mode of action, either contact or systemic, but they have different target sites which results in a different fungicide classification.
And the list is actually pretty long. Matter of fact I printed it out right here, but what they do is break it down by code, target site of action, group name, chemical group, common name that that chemical is known as, and just kind of different side notes and comments about that classification or group.
Like I said the list is pretty long. The codes go all the way up to 42 and they actually have different letter classifications, which are P for post plant defense induction, U for unknown meaning unknown target site of action, M for multi site contact activity and NC, not classified.
And so what this does is it takes all the fungicides that are out there breaks them down by chemical group and puts them in a classification number. And so the shortest answer to the question of what is the difference between a class 3 and 11, one through ten and all the different classifications of fungicides is the chemical that's within them.
Ok so why do we need to know this, why is it so important? Remember, what you want to do with fungicides is create a rotation program. Continual or repeated use of a fungicide with the same FRAC code, it's not recommended because there might be some resistance built up into the turf to that fungicide. And so by doing what I'm doing, rotating from a class three, which is what I first used, to a class 11, which is what we're going to put down today, it's really going to protect you from a lot of different diseases that could possibly pop in your yard.
Another thing I wanted to point out here is there are fungicides out there that are a combination of FRAC codes, say like a there and an 11. By having the two different FRAC codes in there, what this is going to do is give you additional security, so that one active ingredient will go and kill the pathogen, even if it is resistant to the other one.
With all of that said, it's very important to read the label of the fungicide that you're putting down and know how to use them.
Alright so on to the other part of that question, what do these fungicides actually treat? So here's the label of my class 11 that I'm going to be putting down today and this why we always preach read the label and label is law. Because they're going to give you a break down like this on just about every single one of these products. If it's not on the bottle we'll have it somewhere on our website at Do My Own dot com. So, this one right here, it tells you the disease that it's going to control, and the use rate or application rate, with some remarks as to how to apply it, on the label itself. So you can see here, we got leaf blight or leaf spot, it's also good for powdery mildew, and rusts, and the list just keeps going here; we got rusts continued, flower blights. More flight blights, shoot and stem diseases. So again on these label, it's going to give you a nice little break down of the diseases that it controls and the application rates that you need to follow to put it down in your yard.
So I actually had to call in to the customer service staff and pick there brain to figure out how much of of this class 11 fungicide I need to dilute in a gallon of water to put over a 1,000 square feet, and here's a couple of interesting things that they pointed out. One, it's going to vary depending on how thick the turf is that you're applying it in.
Second thing, are we actually treating for a disease or are we just doing a blanket preventative application on the turf to prevent a couple of different dieases or problems that we're going to have, especially with this turf type tall fescue. And that's the route that I'm going. So the recommendation they gave to me was about .4 or half an ounce per one to two gallons of water over a 1,000 square feet. So that's the rate that we're going to go with and that's what we're going to put down back here in the back. So...
Note to self, stop wearing a cotton hoodie to do these applications when it's 90 degrees outside.
And done! Third fungicide application in the fungicide rotation program for the turf type tall fescue is done. That is the first application of the class 11 fungicide.
And that's it for this one. I hope that cleared it up for the question that was left on our last fungicide rotation program and if not sound off! Let me know in the comments section below.
Like I always say and do in all of the videos, if you want to know more about the products I used, I'll leave the links in the description box below so you can click over to Do My Own dot com and read more about them.
And if there's any other questions that you've got about what we talked about in this video, leave those in the comments section below, email them over to our customer service staff, or pick up the phone, give us a call.
And if you're not already, click this button right here to subscribe to the channel, you can click this link right here to watch the most recent episode in the lawn care series and click this playlist right here if you want to check out all the videos in the lawn care series.
And it's time to retire inside because it's blazing hot out here, also, thanks for watching!
