Hormetic effects and fungicide label rates
January 20, 2026
Research published in Plant Disease by Pradhan et. al. focused upon a phenomenon termed hormesis, which describes a curious interaction where the low dose of a substance causes a very different result than a higher dose. In their publication, Pradhan et. al. noted that the dollar spot pathogen, Sclerotinia homeocarpa (not everyone uses the new genus name Clarireedia) grows faster on media amended with a low dose of the fungicide, thiophanate-methyl, compared to growth on media without the fungicide. The…