Syngenta introduces new potato seed treatment

Cruiser Maxx Vibrance will be available for the 2024 growing season

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Canadian potato growers will have a new crop protection product available to them for the 2024 growing season.

Syngenta’s new potato seed treatment, Cruiser Maxx Vibrance, combines four active ingredients to provide early-season protection against diseases like silver scurf and Fusarium. The product also helps protect from pests like Colorado potato beetle and potato leafhopper.

“It’s a very robust all-in-one formulation,” Justin Bouvier, product lead for Seedcare with Syngenta Canada, told Farms.com. “It has thiamethoxam, fludioxonil, difenoconazole and sedaxane to help plants get a nice strong start and develop a robust root system.”

Overwintering adult Colorado potato beetles, for example, could appear in late May or early June, feed for a few days on the emerging potato crop and then mate, the University of Saskatchewan says.

And the females can lay between 300 and 500 eggs from June to late July.

And if not controlled, the insects can completely defoliate plants, resulting in yield loss or even plant death.

That’s why applying Cruiser Maxx Vibrance is crucial for crop success, Bouvier said.

“The product starts fending off anything that’s attacking the plant in the early spring,” he said. “We know how valuable potato crops are and we want to give it the best start possible.”

Cruiser Maxx Vibrance has a use rate of 32.5 mL/100 kg seed (14.7mL/cwt).

One co-pack of the product (one 3.78 L jug + 252mL of colourant) will treat 256.8 cwt.

Anyone looking for more information about Cruiser Maxx Vibrance is encouraged to contact a local Syngenta rep.

Syngenta reps will also be present at major farm shows to discuss the product with farmers, Bouvier said.