in Dacthal herbicide), in an attempt to improve that already commercially available compound. So, in a sense, Daconil fungicide was actually made from an herbicide! In subsequent field testing at Cornell University in the early 1960s, DAC-2787 failed as an herbicide but curiously excelled in foliar plant disease control.
Te company decided to make DAC-2787 in 1963, and Lee was assigned to work in the laboratory to help develop a method to produce the compound. Lee describes his work in that laboratory with scientific details and the terminology of a chemical engineer. He remembers sleeping in the laboratory in those early days, since the chemical reaction took 48 hours to complete. He helped assemble a “reactor” in Laboratory #13, and soon he held in his hands a flask with the very first pound of DAC-2787 ever commercially synthesized. In fact, from 1963 to 1968, every pound of Daconil fungicide was manufactured by Lee and other members of that laboratory team. Lee was assigned to oversee the construction of the reactor equipment and process for making DAC-2787 during those early years. Lee was so respected as a chemist and researcher, that he was elected to the board of the American Chemical Society – Technical Engineers Section.
Te very first time field trials were conducted on a golf course was in 1963 at Erie Shore GC, in Madison, OH, and soon DAC-2787 was identified as a very effective and reliable fungicide for foliar diseases of turfgrasses. In those early years of Daconil, Lee recalls working with university researchers like Dr. Phil Larson (Ohio State), Dr. Noel Jackson (Rhode Island), Dr. Houston Couch (Virginia Tech), and others. Daconil 2787, formulated as a 75 percent wettable powder, was first registered as a fungicide in 1967 on turfgrass, as well as on food crops in foreign countries. Soon after, it was labeled for agricultural and horticultural crops in the USA. Te product name, Daconil, was conjured up by someone in marketing, in honor of the company name, Diamond Alkali Company, and the active ingredient molecule identified as chlorothalonil. Of note, the flowable formulation was introduced in 1979, and the water-dispersible granule formulation was introduced in 1992. Also of interest, in 1973, a Daconil manufacturing plant was built in Texas, with a second plant constructed in 1974 to keep up with worldwide demand. In 1977, an additional plant was built in Texas to supply all the ingredients to make Daconil. Incidentally, prior to 1977, Sherwin Williams (the paint company), supplied an important component to making Daconil.
Back in 1968, Lee was asked to direct the company’s field research efforts at their experimental farm in Ohio, which was a post he held until 1984. Lee was spraying apple trees with Daconil when he received a visit from
the Vice President of the company, who asked him to relocate to Naples, FL, and supervise the experimental farm at that location. In 1988, Lee was asked to be the technical/ sales representative for the East Coast, and that brought him to Bethlehem, PA, where he resides today (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Lee Kozsey Photo courtesy of Dr. Mike Fidanza
What happened to the Diamond Alkali Company? Te company
Figure 4.Lee Kozsey and his famous ‘Daconil’ license plate. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mike Fidanza
was incorporated in 1910, but in 1967 merged with Shamrock Oil and Gas to form the Diamond Shamrock Corporation. Of note, Diamond Alkali produced the herbicide Agent Orange at their Newark, New Jersey, facility, but that’s another story for another time. In the early 1970s, the product labels were segmented, with the trade name “Daconil 2787” in the turfgrass market, and the trade name “Bravo” in the agriculture/horticulture markets. In 1982, Diamond Shamrock’s headquarters relocated to Dallas, TX, and the company wanted to focus on the oil business. So, their ag-chem division was merged with a Japanese company to form SDS Biotech. In 1985, SDS Biotech was sold and became Fermenta, an animal health company from Sweden that was backed by Volvo (yes, the car manufacturer). In 1990, Fermenta sold their ag-chem group to a Japanese company, and ISK Biotech was formed. In 1998, ISK Biotech was bought by the British company, ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), and Zeneca was formed. In 2000, Zeneca and a Swiss company, Novartis, merged to become Syngenta. Terefore, the Daconil fungicide product line has been at home with Syngenta since 2000. Te fungicide has a milky-white color, hence the familiar phrase “…paint it white, sleep at night,” which probably came from a golf course superintendent. If you see a pickup truck in the parking lot with a Daconil license plate (Figure 4), it belongs to Lee! He recently retired from Syngenta after 50-plus years of service. Lee also was recognized by the New Jersey Turfgrass Association for their Hall of Fame
Award.ard.
Mike Fidanza, PhD, is a professor of Plant and Soil Science at Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus. Cale Bigelow, PhD, is a professor of Turfgrass Science and Ecology in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University in Indiana. They are teaming to provide a Rooted in Research article for each issue of Turf News.
TPI Turf News November/December 2023 127
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
