Tag Archives: crop protection

New Reflect gives green light for higher carrot yields

A new carrot fungicide from Syngenta, launched at the British Carrot Growers Association Carrot Open Day earlier this month, enhances green leaf and provides exceptional disease control Say the manufacturers.

Reflect combines a dual action of enhancing plant green leaf health and controlling a broad spectrum of diseases. The active ingredient isopyrazam has been shown to produce visibly greener leaf canopies. Utilising latest NDVI technology, greener crops can be measurably more effective in capturing sunlight, and converting energy to yield. Enhanced light capture also gives the potential to increase sugar carbohydrate levels in roots.

Syngenta Field Technical Manager, Pete Saunders says that green leaves and upright foliage prolongs photosynthetic activity that could lead to greater yield. “Furthermore, it will help growers to extend top lifting, which is faster and cleaner,” he added. “It also gives longer frost protection that can reduce costly straw down and improved root quality.”

Mr Saunders also said that Reflect delivered excellent control of Alternaria and Powdery Mildew, which ensured a clean and healthy crop. The strong healthy foliage would significantly reduce the crop’s susceptibility to Sclerotinia. Independent trials have shown incorporating two applications of Reflect, as the second and fourth sprays in a commercial carrot fungicide programme, retained over 50% more disease free green leaf at the end of the season, compared to using a strobilurin + triazole fungicide at the same timings.

The post New Reflect gives green light for higher carrot yields appeared first on Hort News.

Patterned sticky roll captures more thrips

Welsh-based IPM manufacturer Russell IPM has said that recent experiences in South American trials has reinforced the benefits of using its Optiroll Super patterned sticky strip trap compared to non-patterned alternatives.

These recent results have been gathered at protected carnation and rose growers in Ecuador. According to the company, Mr Galo Pita V. who has been conducting the trials, found ‘some extremely positive results, with Optiroll Super capturing 450% more thrips than the control. Additionally, the protection was seen to increase substantially as infestation levels increased.’

An additional trial measured the capture rate in a range of flowers where Optiroll Super was found to significantly suppress insect populations when compared to a conventional chemical application. Mr Pita V. Commented, “The traps act as barriers to the relocation of the thrips, to reduce the opportunity for migration and mating which ultimately reduces the population and spread of the fly and of course this works to protect the flowers from damage.”

The patterned sticky roll was developed by Russell IPM after the company noticed that trapped insects were found mostly at the edge of their non-patterned sticky roll, being attracted to the contrasting colours of the border.

The post Patterned sticky roll captures more thrips appeared first on Hort News.

Syngenta outlines pipeline of new chemistry

On 16 September Syngenta outlined its pipeline of new product innovations during an Investor Day held at its research centre at Stein in Switzerland.

In crop protection, the company showcased its technology pipeline of nine new active ingredients including the breakthrough, broad spectrum fungicide ADEPIDYN™ (pydiflumetofen) and ORONDIS™ for vegetables and specialty crops, which the Syngenta hopes will reinforce its global leadership in fungicides. The pipeline also includes new insecticides, herbicides and seed treatments.

Trish Malarkey, Head of Research and Development, said, “We are accelerating the rate of our innovation while further improving productivity and return on investment. We are at the beginning of an exciting period in the innovation journey of Syngenta with cutting-edge science driving significant value creation in the short, medium and long-term across all technologies.”

The post Syngenta outlines pipeline of new chemistry appeared first on Hort News.

Koppert acquires Certis beneficial organisms business

Following the decision by Certis Europe to divest itself of its commercial sales business of beneficials in certain European countries, Koppert recently acquired the business for the UK, France and Italy. Certis says it will continue to sell its beneficial organism products elsewhere and develop integrated crop protection programmes for its customers in its other markets.

‘The acquisition of Certis Europe’s beneficials sales business in the UK, France and Italy, fits in well with our long-term strategy to further develop biological solutions for these important agricultural and horticultural countries,’ says Koppert Biological Systems’ Managing Director, Henri Oosthoek.

‘The negotiations with Certis were fruitful and coincide with Koppert’s mission to make agriculture healthier, safer and more productive for the better health of people and the planet. The transfer of business is underway and customers in these countries have been notified,’ he added.

Certis Europe is a leader in integrated pest management for the horticultural and specialty crop sectors. Its CEO, Mark Waltham, said: ‘We are excited to find in Koppert a potential partner that is the market leader in beneficial production and development and is therefore best placed to build on the excellent customer relationships Certis and BCP have developed with beneficial products over the last 20 years.’

The post Koppert acquires Certis beneficial organisms business appeared first on Hort News.

2015 has seen low blight pressure so far

The start of the 2015 potato season has one of the lowest levels of confirmed blight incidences since AHDB Potatoes ‘Fight against Blight’ service began in 2003 says the levy body.

“Following the 2014 season of high blight pressure it was anticipated control would be challenging,” said Claire Hodge, AHDB Potatoes blight specialist. “However, the cold start and the low level of Smith periods combined with robust control implemented by growers, has meant blight has not materialised as expected.”

She urged that growers contact their nearest Blight Scout so that samples of outbreaks could be sent to FERA to analysis: “Perhaps the strains present this year are the really resilient types which are active at lower temps. But we have to have the evidence base to understand this.”

“Blight has been pretty scarce,” confirmed Yorkshire based John Sarup of SPUD Agronomy. “Most ware growers I work with in Northern England have been on 8-10 day spray intervals but still using fairly robust chemistry, I suspect that at the end of the season they might have saved one or two passes but not a great deal product cost wise.”

The post 2015 has seen low blight pressure so far appeared first on Hort News.

Natural repellent for Drosophila suzukii

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have now identified a safe repellent that protects fruits from the spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), an important crop pest in Europe and Northern California.

Butyl anthranilate (BA) is a pleasant-smelling chemical compound which is naturally produced in small amounts in fruit.  In laboratory experiments, the scientists found BA warded off D. suzukii from blueberries coated with it. The finding, when extrapolated to other agricultural pests, could provide a strategy for controlling them and increasing the productivity of crops and fruit.

“Toxic insecticides are often risky to use directly on fruits, especially when they are close to being harvested,” said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology and the director of the Center for Disease Vector Research at UC Riverside, whose lab performed the research project.  “A safe and affordable repellent such as BA could provide protection and reduce use of toxic chemicals.”

To test whether BA can protect fruit from D. suzukii, Ray and his graduate student Christine Krause Pham conducted a series of experiments using two bowls of fresh, ripe blueberries – a preferred fruit of D. suzukii. “We saw decreases after only a single treatment,” Pham explained. “We saw substantial decreases at 2.5 percent of BA and nearly complete protection at the 10 percent concentration, strongly indicating that insect repellents with good safety profiles can be useful to reduce fruit damage during ripening.”

Professor Ray says that the next step is to test how efficacious BA is in field trials.

The post Natural repellent for Drosophila suzukii appeared first on Hort News.

Syngenta rejects second Monsanto bid

Swiss-based agricultural and chemical company Syngenta says that it has rejected a second takeover approach by America’s Monsanto.

Syngenta said it received another letter from Monsanto on Saturday 6 June, which repeated the company’s earlier offer to acquire Syngenta for about $45 billion, which was rejected in May partly due to potential regulatory concerns. According to reports, the latest offer added a $2 billion breakup fee if the merger proved unpalatable to regulators, which Syngenta described as “wholly inadequate” and “paltry.”

“Monsanto’s second letter represents the same inadequate price, same inadequate regulatory undertakings to close, same regulatory risks and same issues associated with dual headquarters’ moves,” Syngenta said in a news release. “As such, we have reiterated our prior rejection of Monsanto’s proposal.”

In its latest letter Monsanto said: “As a sign of our high degree of confidence in obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals, we are willing to commit to a reverse break-up fee of $2bn payable if we are unable to consummate the transaction for antitrust reasons within 18 months. Such a fee would be among the highest reverse break-up fees that any company has agreed to.”

The US company says that its current bid represents 15.8 times Syngenta’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) for 2014, a “significantly higher” figure than seen in other deals in the sector.

The post Syngenta rejects second Monsanto bid appeared first on Hort News.

Interfarm and Nufarm join forces

Interfarm (UK) Limited and Nufarm UK Limited have entered into an agreement in which Nufarm UK will be the non-exclusive distributor for Interfarm’s agriculture and horticulture range in the UK and Ireland. Nufarm UK Ltd is one of the top six suppliers of agrochemical products in the UK, providing a full range of crop protection products for grassland, arable, horticultural crops and products for use in amenity situations and by local authorities.

Interfarm and Nufarm UK say they have worked towards developing a broad-based platform for both companies in an attempt to create a strong and efficient route to market as well as enhancing development, product formulation and logistics capabilities.

“This new portfolio of highly complementary products for the arable and horticultural grower will bring a more enhanced product offering to our distributors, just in time to include the launch of new exciting Sumitomo Chemical products,” said John Martin, Managing Director of Interfarm.

John Austin, General Manager of Nufarm UK, added “We are excited to collaborate with Interfarm as this offer will better serve the needs of our customers.”

The post Interfarm and Nufarm join forces appeared first on Hort News.

Changes to chlorpyrifos authorisation

The Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) has issued a regulatory update (06/2015) outlining changes to the authorised use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos.

As part of the European Union’s routine review programme, new human health based safety levels (known as ‘end points’) have been agreed for chlorpyrifos, an insecticide used to control insect pests in agricultural crops and amenity situations. These new end points represent the latest assessment of risk against modern regulatory standards.

Risk assessments carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have indicated that some currently authorised uses of chlorpyrifos are likely to exceed the newly agreed end points, and we are swiftly evaluating new studies in order to ascertain whether risks are likely to occur in actual use.

With the full co-operation of product authorisation holders, where the risk assessments have already identified current uses that can no longer be supported, HSE are taking the precautionary approach of restricting those uses now.

The list of changed uses, which took effect from 21st May 2015, is as follows:
•    Apples and pears. No use after blossom except for crops destined for cider or perry production. Pre-blossom treatments can continue.
•    Strawberries. No use for 15 days before harvest (replacing the current pre-harvest interval of 7 days).
•    Plums. No use after blossom except for crops intended for heat preservation. Pre-blossom treatments can continue.
•    Brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli, calabrese, oriental cabbages, Brussels sprout, cabbage). Use only before the head forms.
•    Potatoes. Use only on seed crop potatoes.

For full details of the changes to individual products, growers are advised to contact their supplier.

The post Changes to chlorpyrifos authorisation appeared first on Hort News.

Funding for spider venom crop protection

A share of £16 million of government R&D funding for agriculture has been assigned to a novel insecticide – featured in the October 2014 issue of The Vegetable Farmer magazine.

The £1 million project led by Arch UK Biocides Limited and carried out in collaboration with the University of Durham, the Food and Research Agency (FERA) and I2LRESEARCH LTD, will receive over £650,000 Agri-Tech Catalyst funding to further develop an environmentally friendly pesticide which is harmless to non-target species including bees. The new insecticide uses naturally occurring peptides, found in spider venom, to produce an orally effective treatment which can be produced commercially…

This post first appeared first on Hort News on 12 January 2015.

no25 Funding for spider venom crop protection