If you apply soybean fungicides, you probably have R3 application timing drilled into your brain. That’s the go-to timing for soybean fungicide applications that most university Extension specialists and independent agronomists have recommended year in and year out. Now along comes a newer soybean fungicide in the market, and company spokespersons are recommending something different.

“We want to see Revylok soybean fungicide applied at the R2 growth stage in soybeans,” says Albre Brown, technical marketing manager for row crop fungicides and insecticides for BASF. “This fungicide has two ingredients unique to BASF, and it has both preventive and curative properties when it comes to soybean disease. A hallmark of this product is a long residual time on the plant.”

That’s what allows Revylok to be applied during the R2 growth stage and still be effective throughout a good portion of the season, Brown explains. “We can document that it stays on the leaf for more than 28 days, and in some cases, much longer,” she says.

“One of the diseases it controls is frogeye leaf spot,” Brown adds. “We want it on the plant before this disease takes off and is ready to spread. If we wait until R3, there are times when this disease and others will already have a head start. To get maximum effectiveness, we want the product out there so that the disease doesn’t get a foothold.”

Two of the diseases Revylok targets, cercospora and frogeye leaf spot, can infect and survive in seed, so that sometimes gives those diseases a head start, Brown says. It’s another reason an R2 application is recommended, assuming some disease inoculum may be present and waiting for the right conditions to take off and flourish.

Closer look at Revylok

Here are some details about Revylok that set it apart, Brown notes. “FRAC group” refers to mode of action; FRAC stands for Fungicide Resistance Action Committee.