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Taking Innovation To The Max
By Guy Cipriano
Sometimes, the biggest scientific advances don’t occur in a research facility or lab. They occur in the field. By having a network of close relationships with customers and emphatically listening to their needs, BASF has again been able to create a solid disease control solution for the golf industry.
For a golf course superintendent, the field represents a large, diverse, and complicated place. Fostering the field conditions patrons desire means tweaking. The field changes daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Altering philosophies and programs, input rates and timing, products, and solutions allows superintendents to overcome environmental and consumer changes.
How else can the continual elevation of golf course conditioning be explained? Superintendents are agile, adjusting based on what they observe in the field. The savviest companies listen to feedback, take notes, experiment, research, test and develop. They then unveil innovations designed to elevate golfer experiences while helping superintendents overcome challenges in the field.
Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide is the newest addition to the Intrinsic brand fungicide portfolio from BASF. Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide contrasts with other fungicides because its origins stem from superintendents evolving their usage of Insignia SC Intrinsic brand fungicide and Trinity fungicide.
The introduction of Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide epitomizes the possibilities when a company such as BASF responds to the observe-tweak-overcome triad deployed by superintendents.
“This is a product that was created out of a need. We had Insignia SC [Intrinsic brand fungicide] in the field, and we had Trinity [fungicide] in the field, and both were performing well. Over time, superintendents started tank mixing the products together and were saying, ‘Hey, this gives excellent disease control, it broadens the spectrum of diseases that I’m controlling, and l like the flexibility of both in the tank for resistance management and also for residual performance.’ So, we listened to what they were saying and developed the liquid premix.”
Dr Emma Lookabaugh
Senior Technical Specialist, BASF
Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide is labeled for control of 26 diseases on cool- and warm-season turf, with fairways being targeted as the primary use site. The fungicide is a pre-mix combination featuring pyraclostrobin and triticonazole.
Through listening to superintendents and with the subsequent formulation enhancements by a talented and experienced team of researchers and product development specialists, BASF created a solution that solves two important problems: snow mold and large patch
“We’re always looking for ways to broaden the reach of our portfolio with new innovation,” says senior technical specialist Kyle Miller, a three-decade BASF veteran who has been involved in more than 30 product launches. “With Aramax and its strong performance on snow mold in particular, this is a product that delivers real value to the superintendent not just in protective fall applications but all throughout the year.”
The debut of Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide especially excites Browning. Since she is based in Idaho and covers regions where golf courses get buried in snow, Browning was continuously asked when BASF will release a snow mold control tool. She now has a definitive answer.
BASF released Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide for purchase in June, and it will be available for 2024-25 snow mold control applications.
“I can finally use all the [snow mold] data I have been collecting for years,” Browning says. “It’s nice to roll that out and have people see the performance under different conditions. We’ve done work at different elevations, different amounts of snowpack, under winter desiccation and wet winters, and [Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide] has been reliable and has done a really nice job. It works in different combinations with other products and as a solo product all over the geography under different climate conditions. We’re looking forward to getting it out ahead of snow mold.”
Miller adds that Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide will fit snugly into what he calls “the buildable snow mold program” on fairways. Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide is labeled for pink snow mold (fusarium patch) and gray snow mold (typhula blight) control.
“While Aramax [Intrinsic brand fungicide] is very effective on snow mold, as you get into areas with extreme pressure, [long winters, or melt-refreeze cycles], everybody recognizes that just two active ingredients aren’t going to cut the mustard,” Miller says. “This product allows you to add other active ingredients so that you can still get excellent control even in the toughest of conditions.”
Lookabaugh, who covers the Southeast and parts of the Transition Zone, is similarly enthused about offering a large patch control option on zoysiagrass, a turfgrass species consuming rapidly expanding fairway acreage as part of the golf construction and renovation frenzy. Large patch is a significant disease concern on zoysiagrass fairways, and multiple fall and early spring fungicide applications are preventive control norms.
“Aramax [Intrinsic brand fungicide] is going to be the backbone of our zoysia and seashore paspalum programs,” Lookabaugh says. “With Aramax [Intrinsic brand fungicide], we finally have a fairway-focused large patch solution that is strong enough to carry fall preventive programs, deliver 28 days of residual control and can be used to clean up disease flares in the spring
"The best thing about this product is that it is versatile - whether it’s large patch, dollar spot, snow mold, leaf spots and even fairy ring, you are covered."
Dr. Emma Lookabaugh
Senior Technical Specialist, BASF
Besides filling two voids in the venerable BASF fungicide portfolio, Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide provides an everywhere fairway solution for superintendents. The fungicide can be applied on every widely used turfgrass species covering United States fairways, and trials have been conducted in varied conditions to learn effective uses. Brown patch, dollar spot, anthracnose, fairy ring, gray leaf spot, summer patch and take-all patch are among the many other diseases Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide controls.
“When we married up Insignia SC [Intrinsic brand fungicide] and Trinity [fungicide], the Insignia SC [Intrinsic brand fungicide] label covers 26 diseases, and then the Trinity [fungicide] label covers many of the same, so what we’re doing is elevating the level of control on these important diseases like anthracnose, dollar spot and the patch diseases,” Miller says.
To prepare for this summer’s launch, BASF conducted demonstration trials with selected current customers in the field. The trial amounts were large enough to treat more than seven acres of fairways.
“You can show people data and have them talk to people and publish some of the results from those demos, but you also have to get people to try it and see what they think on their course, under their local conditions,” Browning says. “That’s really where the rubber meets the road. We want to get those early responses. Hopefully, people who have experience with Insignia SC and Intrinsic [brand fungicide] products will know they can trust a new Intrinsic [brand fungicide] product to do what it says and give them the protection and longevity that we have seen in the trials over the years and from other Intrinsic products.”
The release of Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Intrinsic brand fungicide line’s 2009 debut in the golf market. The venerable line started with Insignia SC Intrinsic brand fungicide and also includes Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide, Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide, Honor Intrinsic brand fungicide and Pillar G Intrinsic brand fungicide.
A half-dozen plant health fungicides. A half-dozen unique innovation stories.
And, in the case of Aramax Intrinsic brand fungicide, a playing field, instead of a crop field, is where this development story started and will continue.
“This is really unique,” Lookabaugh says. “We don’t even have this active ingredient combination over on the crop side; it’s unique to turfgrass, and it’s what the turf market asked for. It was created just for turfgrass. We thought about what we could bring to the golf market, and what was needed was a fairway solution at an economical price tag. That’s exactly what Aramax [Intrinsic brand fungicide] became.”
