Mancozeb is an excellent protective fungicide with a broad spectrum control effect of lower and higher fungi. It is effective with most pathogens and is registered in more than 90 crops worldwide. It is used to control more than 400 diseases caused by various oomycetes, ascomycetes and basidiomycetes on fruit trees, vegetables, and cereal crops. These diseases include seedling damping-off disease of vegetables, downy mildew, anthracnose, and brown spot diseases of cucurbits, blight disease of chili peppers and tomatoes, late blight of potatoes, rust and powdery mildew of wheat, black shank of tobacco, black spot of pear, scab and canker of citrus, apple leaf spot, and grape downy mildew. In Europe, over 90% of mancozeb is used on potatoes, tomatoes, grapevines, and apples. In North America, mancozeb is mainly used on vegetable crops, mainly tomatoes, onions, and cucurbit vegetables. In Central and Latin America, the main markets for mancozeb are potatoes and bananas.
Mancozeb is not easily produce resistance and has a better control effect than other fungicides of same class. It also increases yield and protects crops. The reason of mancozeb has remained popular for so long is that it has excellent characteristics that other fungicides cannot easily replace. Mancozeb is a multi-site fungicide with broad-spectrum, low toxicity, low residue, high efficiency, and multi-site action. It effectively inhibits the oxidation of pyruvic acid in fungal cells, while manganese and zinc elements have a significant promoting and strengthening effect on crops. Because mancozeb has multiple action sites, pathogenic fungi are less likely to develop resistance, and its effectiveness in disease prevention remains consistent.
At the same time, mancozeb has good compatibility with many systemic fungicides, which can improve efficacy, expand the fungicide spectrum, and delay the development of resistance to systemic fungicides. Mancozeb has been used in China for many years and is one of the main protective fungicide products for fruit trees and vegetables. Its advantages include high cost-effective and easily accepted by growers.
The complex mancozeb has the characteristics of high purity, high efficiency, less environmental pollution, and no hazard of pesticides. The production process of complex mancozeb is very strict. The degree of complexation between manganese and zinc ions in mancozeb controls the release rate of manganese ions by zinc ions, which prevents hazards caused by the rapid release of manganese ions. This makes the complex mancozeb safer for crops than general mancozeb, especially during sensitive periods such as flowering, fruiting, and bulking stage. Also, it can extend the effective period of mancozeb.
The complex mancozeb not only has many advantages such as general mancozeb, broad spectrum, not easy to produce resistance, environment friendly, etc., but also has the characteristics of higher safety, longer duration effects, and better compatibility. It is the development direction of general mancozeb.
