Pythium is here to stay

Here’s why you should care about Pythium in soil

If you’re seeding a pulse crop into wet soil in Western Canada, your seed won’t be the only thing trying to grow. Pythium, a fungal-like pathogen found in soils around the world, is an emerging threat that can attack seeds and plants when they are most vulnerable. And the more researchers learn about Pythium species across Western Canada, the more they uncover gaps in previous protection.

How Pythium attacks

When it attacks, Pythium enters through the seed, seedling, or roots, typically affecting young plants. Seeds and young seedlings infected below and above ground will become soft, turn brown, and disintegrate. Plants that manage to survive an early infection may exhibit reduced vigour and growth, presenting as a random or patchy plant stand.

View this timelapse video of how Pythium impacts seed underground

Timelapse video taken at the Honeywood Research Facility, Canadian Seedcare Institute, on June 6, 2020. Shows untreated soybean seed grown for 10 days. The right side has promix inoculated with Pythium ultimum.

Often misdiagnosed

Damage caused by Pythium may be misdiagnosed as winter injury, poor soil fertility or toxicity from crop residue. Because the symptoms of Pythium infection are similar to other pathogens, laboratory confirmation may be required. After more than seven years of soil sampling across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Syngenta research has identified multiple strains of Pythium that can have a devastating effect on yield in all pulse crop types.

The more we know

Pythium thrives in wet and waterlogged soil and can produce a large number of mobile spores that multiply and spread infection across a field. The optimal temperature for infection varies between species. The newly uncovered strains are going uncontrolled by metalaxyl-M, the active ingredient in many earlier Pythium control strategies. This gap is affecting stand in several areas across Western Canada.

Get more details about Pythium on the complete pest page

Introducing Vibrance Total

In September 2023, Syngenta Canada introduced Vibrance^® Total, a new fungicide seed treatment for the pulse marketplace. Vibrance Total features a new active ingredient, picarbutrazox (PCBX) that offers highly effective Pythium control. PCBX is the first new active ingredient for Pythium management in over 20 years.

In small plot trials, seed treated with Vibrance Total showed a 38% higher plant stand establishment over the inoculated Pythium check in field peas.¹

And in field scale trials across Saskatchewan in 2023, Vibrance Total outyielded market standard 73% of the time.²

Syngenta data tracking results across 12 different sites across Western Canada have revealed a 90% success rate of positive influence of Vibrance Total over competitor products. For dedicated pulse growers, Vibrance Total is the best shot to get next season’s crop off to a truly exceptional start.

Vibrance Total is available for the 2024 growing season and comes in a convenient premix, ready-to-apply formulation, sold in 2 x 10 L cases, 115 L drum and 450 L tote. It is applied at a rate of 325 mL/100 kg seed and has been extensively tested to ensure compatibility with all leading inoculant products.

For more information about Vibrance Total, please visit Syngenta.ca/VibranceTotal, contact your local Syngenta Sales Representative.

¹ Small plot trials conducted in Manitoba in 2022. n = 4
² Source: Syngenta field trials conducted in Willner, SK on June 7th, 2023.


Always read and follow label directions. Vibrance^® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2023 Syngenta