A new tea tree oil fungicide is now available to California growers after hitting the market a few weeks ago. Summit Agro’s Timerex Act was officially registered in California in the middle of October. The new fungicide is available for a variety of different crops. Summit Agro Field R&D Manager, Eric Tedford said that it is a pretty unique chemistry that can offer a variety of benefits.
“It has the active ingredient tea tree oil, so it’s a natural product,” said Eric Tedford, Summit Agro Field R&D Manager. “Because it’s a natural product and it was formulated with other components that are organically complimentary it has OMRI registration. So, it actually can be used for organic production as well as conventional production.”
The broad-spectrum material is available for growers of a variety of different crops. Tedford highlighted citrus, tree nuts, bulb crops, fruiting vegetables, and cereal grain crops as benefitting from Timorex Act. Primarily a fungicide, the material has also been shown to have activity against some bacterial diseases.
“You really never know what’s going to come into your field. So, if you have something that will control both fungal diseases and bacterial diseases, it’s a win-win,” said Tedford. “There really aren’t a whole lot of products on the market for control of bacterial diseases anyway. So, this is a new chemistry that will help fight against those bacterial diseases.”
Timerex Act also appears to safe on bees and other pollinators because of its active ingredient being tea tree oil. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation endorsed the product as being safe for pollinators and other beneficial insects. The material is also free of any residues. “that’s a huge benefit when you think about wanting to use a product and then be able to export it to other countries and not have a residue on there,” Tedford noted.
Listen to the interview below.
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