Seed Treatments Prove to be Good Investment in Cold, Wet Spring

Latham Hi-Tech Hybrids’ practice of treating all of its triple-stack seeds with combination of Trilex™ fungicide and Poncho® insecticide proved its value during the recent cold, wet spring.

The cold, wet soil that dominated most of the Cornbelt meant the seed laid in the soil longer before germinating. That made for ideal conditions for a host of fungus and insects.

While the technology within the corn protects it from multiple threats once the plant is growing, the seeds are still vulnerable in their very early stages of development. Trilex offers a unique combination of two systemic fungicides to protect against a wide spectrum of threats including pythium, rhizoctonia, and early season phytophthora. Poncho delivers early season protection against wireworm, white grub, seed corn maggot, flea beetle, grape colaspis, chinch bug and black cutworm.

Poncho’s protection against wireworms, seed corn maggots and grubs especially proved invaluable this season when those pests were out in force. Poncho offers two-stage protection by putting a barrier around the seed to kill approaching insects, and also imbedding insecticide into the seed to kill any pests that manage to take a bite.

This year, when conditions really slowed down the growth of corn plants, Poncho’s two-pronged protection was incredibly important. By offering protection around the seed, and within the seedling itself, the seed-applied insecticide was really critical to give uniform, healthy stands.

Latham Hybrids has adopted the practice of using seed-applied fungicide and insecticide to help customers protect their high-tech seed investments. The treatments also make it possible to plant corn earlier in the spring, when it’s usually cooler and wetter, to capitalize on the yield potential of a longer growing season.

President John Latham makes a priority for our business to do everything we can to give farmers the best payback for the investment they’re making. Given market conditions and the value of the technology being built into seeds, the price of seed corn is going to continue to increase. Latham is determined to provide maximum protection for seeds to make sure those higher seed investments generate higher return.