Natural & effective Foliar Disease Control Programme for protected ornamental crops

Programme overview

Outline

Disease management is a persistent issue for protected ornamental production – with the wide variety of plants grown meaning that a whole range of diseases must be managed to avoid damage to the crop.

Biopesticides, with their biological modes of action, are the perfect products for achieving control of disease as they harness natural plant defence processes to deliver exceptionally broad-spectrum protection. This level of control is achieved whilst limiting exposure of operators to hazardous chemicals and without risking any damage to the environment. However, only a correctly nourished plant is able to effectively undertake these processes, and so it’s vital to ensure that fertilisation works in tandem with any of these products.

This programme will explain how you can utilise a combination of biopesticides that complement one another to achieve control over disease.

How does it work?

This programme is preventative and so must be started before symptoms of disease are present. This will not provide control of established infections and so selection of clean plants is essential.

For the first round of spraying, Taegro and SB Plant invigorator are used in a tank mix. SB Plant invigorator will create clean plant surfaces that the Bacillus bacteria in Taegro is able to establish a population on. This population will provide a protective barrier for the plant to combat disease.

For the second round of spraying, Romeo is used. The degraded yeasts in Romeo will simulate a pathogen attack – causing the plant to upregulate its natural defences to improve its resilience to disease. These changes include alterations to leaf structure and secretion of metabolites, which enable improved establishment of the Bacillus bacteria in Taegro – prolonging the efficacy of each application.

These two rounds of sprays should be repeated with a spray either each week, if during a high disease risk period, or each fortnight, if during a lower disease risk period.

These biopesticides operate on natural processes and so require daytime temperatures of at least 15⁰C in the growing facility to be effective and this efficacy is greatly enhanced by correct fertilisation.

The programme has been tested on a variety of crops and diseases but there may be some crops or diseases which the programme may not provide control for. Efficacy is also not guaranteed if cultural controls are inadequate – including fertilisation. If an infection of disease develops then use an approved curative fungicide and then return to the spray programme.

Products

Romeo

Active Ingredient: Cerevisane (denatured brewers yeast).

Mode of Action: Denatured yeast cells are recognised as fungus by the plant and elicit natural plant anti-pathogen defences.

Taegro

Active Ingredient: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain FZB24

Mode of Action: Bacteria colonises plant surface and secretes anti-fungal compounds to inhibit establishment of fungal spores.

SB Plant Invigorator

Contains: Mix of ecologically friendly and phyto-safe surfactants

If an infection of disease develops then use an approved curative fungicide and then return to the spray programme.

Spray Programme

Product overview

*Assumed water rate of 1000L/ha


Knapsack Rates - 10 litre knapsack

Template spray schedule

High Disease Pressure Spray Schedule

Low/Medium Disease Pressure Spray Schedule

Notes:

• Apply in tank mix and always add SB Plant invigorator first

• For best results apply in late afternoon/evening

• Amount of applications is liable to change depending on development of crop

• Programme can be extended should harvest dates change – but please be conscious of harvest Intervals and application limits on production labels

The Programme in Practice

Ferring Nurseries and Firewood

Littlehampton Rd, Ferring, Worthing, BN12 6PN

• Crop: Cyclamen(12,000 plants)

• Growing Environment: Unheated greenhouse

• Application Method: Hand held spray

• Water Rate: 1000L/ha

• Growing Media: Peat-free mix (combination of wood fibre, bark, coir, green compost, perlite and clay)

Fertilisation: 

Integrated Organic Granules

3g/L DCM ECOR5(NPK 8-5-6)

1g/L DCM Vivifos(NPK 4-30-0)

0.7g/L DCM Micromix

Integrated Mineral Granules

0.7kg/L Base fertiliser(NPK 17-10-14)

0.3g/L N fertiliser(NPK 31-0-0)

Liquid Mineral Fertiliser

Calcium nitrate(1kg/10L dosed at 1%- every 3-4 days)

Spray Schedule

Results

Botrytis spotting of flowers is the primary disease concern with Cyclamen crops. We achieved 100% control with no flower damage observed in the crop – this is despite an unseasonably cool and humid July and August and no heating of the crop.

CONTROL LEVEL 100%

‘The spray programme was easy to apply and achieved complete control. We lost no plants to disease.’ - David Courtenay Luscombe, Grower Manager, Ferring Nurseries and Firewood.

Costings

PROGRAMME TOTAL COST FOR PRODUCT ONLY: £0.0006 per plant (£0.60 per 1,000 plants).


Benefits of Programme
• Lower cost than conventional programme
• No exposure of staff to hazardous materials
• No chemical residues on product
• Application is easy and practical
• Products work on natural plant processes and create stronger and more resilient plants – improving customer success when planting at home

Taegro MAPP Number 19204
Romeo MAPP Number 19170

USE PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS SAFELY.ALWAYS READ THE LABEL AND PRODUCT INFORMATION BEFORE USE. FURTHER DETAIL ON WARNING SYMBOLS AND PHRASES IS INCLUDED ON THE LABELS AND LEAFLETS.