New wheat fungicide is first co-formulation of two top actives
© Tim Scrivener Cereal growers are set to benefit from a new fungicide next spring, the first approved co-formulation of Bayer’s latest SDHI and Corteva’s Inatreq active.
Bayer has received regulatory authorisation for Jessico Fusion, which contains the company’s Iblon (isoflucypram) and the Inatreq active (fenpicoxamid).
See also: How a Somerset farmer grows cereals without plough or herbicides
“Jessico Fusion is the latest product to form part of the Iblon family of fungicides,” says Greg Hanna, fungicide market development for Bayer.
He adds that all have demonstrated excellent efficacy against the principal foliar threats, such as septoria, yellow rust and brown rust.
Assessed in challenging conditions
Bayer assessed the fungicide’s activity across many seasons, including 2024 and 2025 which offered the opportunity to assess its performance under uniquely challenging conditions.
“In both the 2024 and 2025 seasons when conditions were either extremely wet or exceptionally dry, the new fungicide performed impressively, frequently delivering the greatest yield uplift of any product in trial.”
He says this suggests the active substances combine to deliver an excellent broad spectrum disease control solution well-suited to T2, but with the flexibility to be used at T1 in higher septoria pressure conditions.
The prolonged dry weather of 2025 made assessing the disease control performance of all fungicides a challenge.
These conditions, however, were ideal for assessing any crop greening benefits fungicides deliver over and above what might otherwise be expected.
In this situation, the company says the Iblon component delivered impressively sustaining green leaf area beyond that typically seen with Bayer’s older product Ascra Xpro (bixafen + fluopyram + prothioconazole).
“The 2025 season proved to be an extreme challenge, but one that provided an opportunity to assess the physiological benefits of a fungicide.
“The extended chlorophyll activity seen with Iblon in earlier trials was repeated with Jessico Fusion with treated crops delivering a positive yield return in the absence of disease, but under intense drought stress,” Greg says.
The performance of the new fungicide at either the T1 or T2 timing and as part of a balanced programme was also investigated as part of Bayer’s market development trials.
“The inclusion of Inatreq makes T2 the obvious timing and this is supported by the trials data.”
Growers can apply a maximum of one application of Jessico Fusion per year up to a maximum individual dose of 1.5 litres/ha
