Syngenta glyphosate premixes picked up Canada’s registration

A new premixed herbicide for use in glyphosate-tolerant soybean crops is meant to help growers prevent their weeds from developing herbicide resistance.

Syngenta Canada last week picked up federal registration in Eastern Canada for its new Group 9 and 14 product, dubbed Flexstar GT. It’s billed as combining contact and residual activity to control Group 2-resistant weeds and cut the risk of weed shifts.

"Growers are looking for ways to stay ahead of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which are becoming more pervasive across Eastern Canada," Nathan Klages, the company’s Canadian asset lead for non-selective corn and bean herbicides, said in a release.

Syngenta markets glyphosate (Group 9) under the name Touchdown.

Flexstar GT, Klages said, "allows soybean growers to move beyond glyphosate alone, decreasing weeds’ abilities to develop resistance."

Flexstar’s label covers it for non-selective burndown of annual and perennial grasses and broadleaf weeds and residual control of redroot pigweed and common ragweed in glyphosate-tolerant soybean crops in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

The product’s Group 14 active ingredient, fomesafen, is also the lone active ingredient in Syngenta’s Reflex, sold for use in soybean and bean crops in Manitoba and points east.

Fomesafen’s approved use in Flexstar, however, is at 67 grams per litre, compared to 240 g/L in Reflex.

Flexstar is to be used in a post-emergent ground application once per season only, and in any field only every second year. The glyphosate-tolerant beans should not be harvested within 90 days of a Flexstar application.

For larger weeds or weeds in stress conditions, Syngenta requires Flexstar users to add its spray tank adjuvant Turbocharge in 0.25 per cent volume/volume solution.