COTREN-DUO

Overview

Cotren-Duo is a bactericide from Agritas: kasugamycin at 2% with copper oxychloride at 45%, as a wettable powder. Both actives work on bacteria, which ordinary fungicides cannot touch at all. This is the product for a bacterial disease — not a fungal one.

Composition

Kasugamycin 20 gm/kg (2% w/w) + Copper Oxychloride 450 gm/kg (45% w/w), 45% WP

Type

Fungicide · Bactericide

Chemical group

Antibiotic (kasugamycin) + Copper (FRAC M1)

Pack size

—

Controls

Dose & application

Rate: take it from the pack. Agritas will not print a figure here that might not match the label in your hand; your Haryali Markaz will confirm it.

Method: a thorough, even spray covering both sides of the leaf.

Timing: at the first streaks, or ahead of wet windy weather, and repeated as the label directs while those conditions last.

This is for bacterial disease. If the problem is fungal, a fungicide is the right product and this one is not.

Why it pays

A bacterial disease is where a fungicide does nothing whatever, and a farmer can spray all season without effect because nothing in the cabinet acts on a bacterium. Copper kills bacteria on the leaf surface before they get in; kasugamycin is an antibiotic that moves into the tissue and reaches what is already there. Together they are the recognised treatment for bacterial leaf blight.

Field tips

Start early. Copper protects the tissue that is still clean and will not undo a blight that has already run through the field, so the first spray belongs at the first streaks or when the weather turns wet and windy. Copper can mark or burn some crops in strong sun - spray in the cool part of the day and check the pack for the crops it is registered on. Do not mix it with anything alkaline. And do not lean on it alone: kasugamycin is an antibiotic, and bacteria build resistance to it if it is the only thing they ever meet.

Safety

Wear gloves, boots, long sleeves, eye protection and a mask while mixing and spraying - it is a wettable powder and the dust is the part to keep out of your eyes and lungs. Wash thoroughly afterwards. Do not eat, drink or smoke while spraying.

Copper is harmful if swallowed and irritates the skin, eyes and airways. If anyone swallows it, go to hospital at once with the container. Do NOT make them vomit. Flush a splashed eye with clean running water for at least fifteen minutes.

Copper is very toxic to fish and does not break down - it stays in the soil and builds up with repeated use. Keep it out of irrigation channels, ponds and drinking water. Observe the pre-harvest interval on the label. Store it locked away from children, animals and feed, and never re-use an empty pack for grain, feed, water or anything else.