Hi, our local supplier could not supp;y the Truban that we wanted to drench our crop with. The roots look okay, but we want to keep up a preventative program and one month ago we used Subdue and Fungo. They are recomending Aliette and Chipco. Is that safe? Effective?

In my experience, Aliette tends to be a little rough on points. I would not use as a preventative only in a situation were subdue and and truban failed.

We often use Chipco in our rotation at the Ranch with out any difficulties. We use Aliette less often because it seems to only be effective on Phytophthera. It also warns on the label to avoid the use of spreader stickers and not to mixe with copper containing fungicides or certain forms of Daconil. This time of year when growers are making a lot of PGR applications with spreader stickers, using the Aliette may pose a risk to the plants. We also trialed the material as a drench application and had problems with the crop because the drench caused a sudden drop in pH.

Consider trying biologicals such as Plantshield, Rhapsody, or Actinovate- there are no phyto probs with any of them and in general they can be very effective when applied before infection.