'You have to be ahead of trips anyway'

"Actually, thrips control starts immediately with sowing. Because: the more evenly the onions emerge, the better you can determine the spraying time, the more effective the control will be." Lorenz Brooijmans from Dinteloord (N-Br.) has the floor. In the past three years he had to deal with a significant thrips pressure. He looks back on this together with advisor Arjan de Feijter of Handelsonderneming Vlamings. "You have to be ahead of trips anyway, otherwise you'll be chasing them all season."

"The control of thrips in onions is more than just spraying against it. It is very important to get the crop out evenly. In an even and well-growing crop, thrips control is much better. And also very important: start with the thrips on time. first spraying, as soon as the first thrips larvae are found, because if you already find adult thrips, then you are actually too late."

Lorenz Brooijmans explains in a few sentences how he tackles thrips in onions. Last season, the bone-dry summer once again made this quite a task, as the arable farmer remembers well. Despite watering 3 times during the emergence period, he was unable to prevent the development of two-washedness. "In mid-June, the smallest plants had barely 2 pipes and the largest already had 4 pipes. And the onions didn't really want to grow either. Then you know that it will be difficult to carry out optimal control against thrips..."

Thrips pressure from onion sets and grass seed
Brooijmans says that the thrips pressure is already very high at his company. "Here in the polder, several hundred hectares of onion sets are grown every year. When they are harvested from the beginning of June, the thrips pressure increases enormously. And because I am pretty much the only one here with sowing onions, the thrips are only too happy to move to my crop." In addition, a considerable amount of grass seed has also been grown around his company for a number of years. "Those thrips also like to fly over to the onions during harvest", the farmer knows.

Although the high thrips pressure mainly has disadvantages, Brooijmans also sees a small plus: "You can see the danger very well, so that you are immediately aware of how to combat it. That helps to carry out the first spraying on time. be ahead anyway, otherwise you'll be chasing it all season."

3 sprays against thrips
Last year Brooijmans sprayed his onions against thrips 3 times. That was on June 15, July 6 and July 20. "Because I was only able to sow the onions in the last week of April - with a poor turnout afterwards - the first spraying against thrips was a bit late," the arable farmer looks back. "After that, the pressure remained high, so I ended up having to spray 3 times to keep the thrips out of the crop." According to Arjan de Feijter, 'well-rounded' thrips control is important to keep the crop vital until harvest. And also to make the MH spraying successful. "In recent years, we have regularly seen that growers did not stop thrips control a little too early. As a result, the crop deteriorated to such an extent that only rough, grey-grey leaves remained at the end of the season. MH spraying makes little sense then. more, because the drug is then barely absorbed," according to the advisor.

Batavia best choice against trips
With regard to the choice of agents, De Feijter maintains a fairly fixed line: the first 2 sprayings standard with 0,75 l/ha Batavia and – if necessary – an additional spray of Tracer®. According to the advisor, Batavia Due to its very strong preventive effect, it is currently the best choice against thrips. In addition, there are no additional requirements for drift reduction and the product is safe for natural enemies. "With these properties, Batavia has a clear advantage over other products."

Finally, the advisor emphasizes again that Batavia only works on the larvae of thrips and not on adult thrips. "It is therefore essential to use Batavia early, i.e. when the first larvae appear. It is also highly recommended to add vegetable oil. As a result, the agent is absorbed much better and you double the amount of active ingredient under hardened conditions. in the plant."

_{Tracer® is a registered trademark of Corteva Agriscience}

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