Brought to you by BASF
Carrot benefits from effective fungicide schedule for a long time
Strong fungicide schedules not only protect foliage during the growing season, but extend deep into storage. The choice of means appears to have a major influence on both the yield and the failure rate. This was nicely illustrated in a demo.
The fungus season in carrots will be upon us within two months. From mid-July, mildew and alternaria can spread considerably and weaken the carrot production system. But with the right choice of resources, the foliage remains productive until harvest.
Strong on mildew
When it comes to fungal control, the choice of medium appears to have a major influence on both the fresh yield and the rejection percentage. With Dagonis SC as a relatively new carrot fungicide and Signum as a proven 'golden oldie', BASF set up 2 interesting field trials last season on plots in Marknesse and Dronten. Technical product advisor Kick van Saarloos explains: "The good performance of Signum on mildew and alternaria has been known to carrot growers for some time, but we now also wanted to show how well Dagonis SC does on these leaf fungi. And we succeeded." In the mildew test, Dagonis SC and Signum both scored an efficacy of 95% or higher. The market reference, a drug based on difenoconazole and azoxystrobin, reached 60%. Dagonis SC and Signum were both sprayed 2 times in a schedule that ended with Scala twice; Promoter was added to all sprayings.
Infected Alternaria Trial
Dagonis SC and Signum also showed good results in the alternaria trials. "The trials were infected, so the pressure was high," recalls van Saarloos. "But that didn't detract from the performance. Both Dagonis SC solo and Dagonis SC in a schedule with Scala scored an alternaria performance well above 70%, just like the Signum schedule. The market reference came to 60% operation. For the main fungi in the field period, therefore, both Signum and Dagonis SC are an excellent choice."
The good foliage protection was also convincingly reflected in the yield figures. Both the Dagonis SC schedule and the Signum schedule achieved a 22% increase in yield over untreated. The market reference achieved a return of 12%.
Failure after cooling
The lots of carrots from both trials were then stored for 5 months in the refrigerator under the same conditions. The percentage of dropouts was determined in mid-May. The affected carrot, which had largely fallen prey to botrytis and sclerotinia, was recently graphically presented to a number of crop protection advisers in Dronten (see photo). And here too the BASF fungicides gave good results. There were, however, significant differences between the test locations. The party from Marknesse showed itself stronger in the custody than the party from Dronten. Van Saarloos: "In Dronten, Signum scored the best with almost 10% failure, followed by Dagonis SC with almost 15%; the market reference product had 22% failure." In Marknesse the figures were much lower at 2,4, 3,8 and 6,3%, but the ranking was the same. The conclusion is therefore clear for Van Saarloos. "If you want the best protection against fungi from July to May, Signum is still the first choice. And Dagonis SC is still a very close second." One of the crop protection advisers present was able to confirm this. “When you start your carrot schedule with Signum, it doesn't really matter what you do after that,” he said of his own experience.
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