Syngenta Crop Protection's launch of Callisto broadleaf corn herbicide last season was the company's most successful product launch ever, garnering four million acres across the Midwest. Now the company is seeking to get more mileage out of the unique mesotrione chemistry by including it in a formulation with atrazine and S-metolachlor. The potent combination, dubbed Lumax herbicide, is designed for preemergence application on corn. Syngenta claims one application provides season-long control of all major broadleaf and grass weeds.

Limitations of Lumax are essentially the same as those of the three herbicide chemistries that make it up. It can be applied from 10 days before planting to emerged corn up to 5 in. tall, but weeds should not be emerged. To avoid crop injury or tankmix antagonism, Lumax should not be used where Counter or Lorsban were used, and it should not be tank mixed with an organophosphate insecticide.

You can replant corn immediately where Lumax was applied, but in Wisconsin, any fields planted after June 10 can be rotated only to corn because of the atrazine. Areas that prohibit or restrict atrazine may not use Lumax, but Syngenta hopes to reach those markets with an atrazine-free formula called Camex. Syngenta plans to roll out Lumax and Camex most aggressively in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. Syngenta spokesperson David Elser says the company hopes to capture 400,000 to 500,000 acres with the new product in Wisconsin alone. Many of those may come at the expense of Bicep and Dual.

For more information, visit www.syngenta.com or www.freeproductinfo.net/fin.

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