Using ILEVO with Preemergence Herbicides

***Updated in 2025, this version replaces the previous 2016 Using ILEVO with Preemergence Herbicides publication.***

Fluopyram (ILEVO®; BASF) is a fungicide seed treatment used to manage soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS). Use of ILEVO® can result in cotyledon discoloration known as the “halo effect” (Figure 1).

Farmers and crop advisors question if seedling damage is more severe when preemergence herbicides are applied to fields that have been planted with ILEVO®-treated seed since preemergence herbicides can also injure seedlings (Figures 2 and 3). To answer this question, a two-year study in Indiana and Iowa examined the interaction of ILEVO® and common preemergence herbicides on phytotoxicity, stand, and yield.

This research found no negative effect on plant stand and soybean yield from phytotoxicity caused by ILEVO® and/or preemergence herbicides. Although visual damage may seem severe when ILEVO® and preemergence herbicides are used together, there was no detectable interaction between ILEVO® and the preemergence herbicides tested in this experiment. This means that ILEVO® did not increase seedling damage from herbicides and herbicides did not increase damage from ILEVO®. In all treatments, phytotoxicity subsided by the V4 growth stage and any damage caused by preemergence herbicides did not make ILEVO® less effective.

Cool, wet conditions increase phytotoxicity symptoms for both ILEVO® and preemergence herbicides. These conditions also favor infection by the fungus that causes SDS. Research conducted by several Land Grant Universities and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and AgriBusiness (OMAFA) indicates that ILEVO® can be a useful SDS-management strategy in fields with a history of SDS that will be planted in less than ideal conditions.

Acknowledgments

Authors

Kiersten Wise, University of Kentucky; Daren Mueller, Iowa State University; Bill Johnson, Purdue University; Travis Legleiter, University of Kentucky; Carl Bradley, University of Kentucky; Martin Chilvers, Michigan State University; Loren Giesler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Adam Sisson, Iowa State University; Damon Smith, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Albert Tenuta, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and AgriBusiness

Reviewers

Edward Sikora, Auburn University and Alyssa Betts, University of Delaware.

Sponsors

The authors thank the United Soybean Board and the Grain Farmers of Ontario through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a federal-provincial territorial initiative, for their support. Support was also provided by State and Federal Funds appropriated to the State Land Grant Institutions of cooperating authors and the United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA). This project was funded in part through Bayer CropScience and Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial territorial initiative.