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Bayer Outdoor Vegetables Platform 2024
This year there are eight different crops on Bayer's Open Field Vegetables Platform: celeriac, savoy cabbage, carrots, leek, kale, lettuce, spinach and regular green beans. "As in other years, crop protection is again central and especially how we can place the available resources in the right place in the schedules," says Stefan van Heist, crop advisor at Bayer.
"We still have a lot of work to do," says Stefan van Heist when he measures a few test plots together with colleague Henko Klement and test field manager Joris Giesen. It is the third week of June and less than half of the planned test objects has been sown or planted on the Open Ground Vegetables Platform. "Just like everywhere else in the Netherlands, the weather has really played tricks on us here. Hopefully we will finally keep it dry for a while, so that we can complete the work quickly and show great results in the autumn."
This year there are eight different crops on the platform. These are celeriac, Savoy cabbage, carrots, leek, kale, lettuce, spinach and regular green beans - the last five of which still need to be sown or planted. "As in other years, crop protection is again central, and especially how we can place the available resources in the right place in the schedules," says Van Heist.
In addition to chemical agents, this also increasingly includes biological agents, such as: Serenade, FLiPPER Plus en XenTari. "This category will increasingly form part of our package of resources in the coming years. By allowing these resources to participate in trials as much as possible, it becomes increasingly clear how you can best use them and what you can expect from them in a multi-year perspective." ', says Van Heist.
According to Van Heist, the Open Ground Vegetables Platform fits in well with the challenges currently facing the various crops. "Many important chemicals will disappear in the coming years. We must prepare for this, both with new spraying and treatment schedules, as well as with more robust varieties. Furthermore, there is an increasing call from society to make crop protection greener. With this platform we try to give substance to that and hope to take a step further through knowledge sharing and discussions."
Serenade in celeriac
As a preview of what will be on display in the autumn, Van Heist and Klement have selected four samples. The first is the tray and soil treatment with Serenade in celeriac. Four objects were set out for this test: untreated, only a tray treatment with Serenade, only a soil treatment and a combination of a tray and soil treatment. Although the celeriac was planted barely a week earlier, the effect of Serenade can already be seen by the third week of June.
The treated objects clearly have an advantage and are better developed than the untreated plot. Van Heist shows with photos that the tray treatment (immediately after sowing, by the plant grower) quickly produces a better developed root system. "As a result, the plants are more resistant to fungal diseases such as fusarium and pythium from the start and they now also suffer less from stress caused by the wet weather."
FLiPPER Plus in savoy cabbage
The focus of the test in Savoy cabbage is on the control of aphids. Henko Klement explains that there are several schemes with the biological agent Flipper Plus (with test field exemption) around the louse agent Sivanto Prime during spheroid formation (BBCH 40) are plotted. "In this trial we use Sivanto Prime at different times both before and after Flipper Plus and we look at the effects of this. The most important thing that Flipper Plus has to do is prevent population build-up of lice. The fact that it also helps to make lice control greener is of course a bonus," said the crop advisor.
An important reason for starting the test is the disappearance of the active substance spirotetramat (including in movento en Batavia) after the 2025 season. Van Heist is very clear about this: "Without the two-sided systemic agents Batavia and Movento, the control of aphids - as well as whiteflies and thrips - will be a gigantic task in many crops. With the combination of Sivanto Prime and Flipper Plus, it will have to be timed so that the aphids are combated as much as possible. That requires a lot of effort, both from advisors and from growers."
With the loss of Batavia and Movento, Klement also expects significant problems with woolly root aphids in carrots, especially during drier years. "Woolly root aphid proliferates underground; you can only get rid of it with downward systemic means. If spirotetramat disappears soon, I don't see a solution to this problem yet."
XenTari against caterpillars
Finally, both crop advisors mention the test in kale where the drug XenTari is used against caterpillars. To achieve optimal coverage of the product on the leaf, various adhesives and wetting agents are tested. "This should ensure that XenTari does not appear as drops, but as a beautiful film on the leaf," Van Heist explains. Finally, he emphasizes that the Bacillus thuringiensis strain of the cabbage butterfly, cabbage moth and the cabbage owl, "That makes the product interesting in many open field vegetable crops."
