The 1st and original EPA-registered seed treatment to suppress white mold in soybeans and dry beans.
Key Benefits
White mold ranks as one of the top yield-robbing soybean diseases in the northern United States. It thrives in cool, moist conditions and can spread rapidly through sclerotia in the soil. Don't wait until it's too late - prime your seeds' defense against white mold so it can react faster and stronger, before white mold has a chance to do extensive damage.
Heads Up® is a non-living biological, integrating it into your yearly management plan stimulates season-long systemic disease resistance against white mold. Its formulation is compatible with other seed treatments, including conventional fungicides, and there are no restrictions between treatment and planting. You can treat your seed days, weeks, or even months before planting.
White Mold
Compared to many other pathogens, White Mold is highly aggressive, and the infection progresses rapidly. As a result, in many cases, the plant's defense mechanisms may not be activated quickly enough or strongly enough to effectively combat the infection.
Over two decades of research suggest that Heads Up® treated seeds are given a significant head start (or, “Heads Up”) in responding to White Mold. Although Heads Up® is not a curative solution, and high disease pressure may still result in some infection, the Heads Up® treated seeds have a much better opportunity to fight off the disease.
Soybean Trial - Denmark, WI
Trial conducted by TH Agri-Chemicals
2025 Warroad MN trial.
Growers with fields that have a history of white mold have noted when using Heads Up®:
- Lower overall incidence of disease
- Reduction of the severity of disease
- Fewer infected plants
- Less sclerotia returning to the soil, positively impacting future planting
- Consistent yield benefit
- Strong ROI, especially with long-term use
Stacking Plant Defense
Adding Heads Up® to your treatment package builds a more robust, broad-spectrum defense against disease throughout the entire season. Since Heads Up® works through the plant's own defense mechanisms, it is crucial to select seed varieties tailored to your unique growing conditions. For instance, if you have a history of white mold, choose a seed with a better resistance score against that disease (Watch: Scoring white mold). A well-suited seed enhances the defensive potential when paired with Heads Up®.
An additional benefit of using Heads Up® is that disease pathogens cannot become resistant to the treatment. Heads Up® does not directly fight the disease; instead, it empowers the treated plant to defend itself. When disease pressure is high, pairing Heads Up® with a fungicide, which actively targets the disease, provides a powerful defense against yield loss.
Managing White Mold in Soybeans
Top Strategies to Reduce Risk Prior To Planting, Post Planting, and Post Infection
While there is no silver bullet approach for eliminating white mold in soybeans, it can be effectively managed through a multi-step process to limit yield loss. Below is a summary of the top practices for managing soybean white mold both prior to and post-planting:
Prior to Planting
- Crop Rotation: rotate non-host crops. Longer crop rotations with non-susceptible crops like corn will help reduce the level of inoculum (sclerotia) in the field. Sclerotia normally rests within two inches of the soil’s surface. To reduce the likelihood of white mold in soybeans year over year, it’s important to rotate other crops in. We don’t recommend tilling to bury sclerotia deeper into the soil, as some studies show this may actually do more harm than good.
- Land Selection: select fields with good drainage/plant in your fields which do not have a history of white mold.
- Variety Selection: ask your seed dealer for a white mold tolerant seed variety.
- Consider lowering plant population: some studies have shown lower plant populations can help reduce white mold incidence by encouraging airflow.
- HAVE YOUR SEED DEALER APPLY HEADS UP® – The first EPA registered seed treatment for white mold and SDS, Heads Up offers a systemic, full season approach to help suppress white mold throughout the growing season. Here’s how it works.
Post Planting
- Consider using a fungicide at the R1 – R3 growth stages.
- Consider a biofungicide in areas with a history of white mold (such as low/wet spots in the field).
Post Infection
- Make notes of highly infected areas for future planting consideration.
- Try to eliminate spreading the white mold sclerotia (survival structure) by harvesting heavily infected fields/areas last.
Don't Plant Without It
Ask your seed dealer for Heads Up® or find a retailer near you.