Welcome to the September edition of the Life Scientific Newsletter.
After a prolonged harvest, it is time put learnings in place to protect the next cereal and oilseed rape crops against pests, weeds and diseases.
The Life Scientific range includes proven products in all these sectors such as NIANTIC, SUMIR and FIRESTARTER for cereal weed control, LAMBDASTAR for oilseed rape and cereal pest control, and ESKER, ORASO PRO, DIFENOSTAR, AURELIA and ZONOR for disease control in oilseed rape.
In this edition, we will give an overview of the fungicides and show why FIRESTARTER can be a good choice for your cereal herbicide programme.
Oilseed rape disease control
According to AHDB’s 2023 phoma forecast model (https://ahdb.org.uk/phoma-leaf-spot-forecast), last year saw the earliest risk of phoma pressure for some years. Based on weather data (rainfall and temperature) the model predicts when phoma levels may reach 10% around the country. In 2023, half of the sites modelled had reached this by the end of September.
One reason for this may have been the warm wet summer favouring phoma development. Conditions in parts of the country have been similar this year, so it is important to monitor crops for signs of the disease.
Phoma is actually caused by two closely related pathogens, Plenodomus lingam and Plenodomusbiglobosus (previously called Leptosphaeria maculans and Leptosphaeria biglobosa) with the former showing as pale circular spots containing small black dots (pycnidia), and the latter showing as darker spots with fewer or no pycnidia.
Source: AHDB
Although the leaf spots don’t cause much damage, stem cankers can form if the pathogen moves from the leaf to the stems. This can lead to lodging, early senescence and up to 0.5T/Ha yield loss due to restriction of water and nutrient movement around the plant.
Timing of fungicides is important for effective control, with the first spray targeted when the crop reaches 10-20% of plants with leaf spots (depending on the resistance rating of the variety).
Where pressure remains high and reinfection occurs, a second application should be made for best control and, if the correct product is chosen, this can also help with protection against light leaf spot.
Life Scientific has a range of products based on the triazoles, difenoconazole, prothioconazole and tebuconazole, which can be used in the autumn. Choice should be based on the targeted disease, but tebuconazole is also known to have some growth regulation activity in oilseed rape.
DIFENOSTAR contains difenoconazole and is a cost-effective choice for phoma control with no PGR activity.
AURELIA contains prothioconazole which has activity against both phoma and light leaf spot, also with no PGR activity.
ESKER and ORASO PRO are optimised co-formulations containing prothioconazole and tebuconazole so are a good choice for both diseases, especially in forward crops.
ZONOR contains tebuconazole, also having activity against both diseases, and is an alternative option in forward crops.
See the labels for full approval details, including dose rates and timings.
Grass weed control in cereals
An important herbicide in the Life Scientific range is FIRESTARTER, containing diflufenican and flufenacet, the latter being one of the herbicide active ingredients currently less affected by resistance in some key weeds, and one that is still critical to black-grass programmes.
Control of difficult grass weeds requires a whole rotation approach, including crop choice and cultivations, and it is critical to use contact and residual chemistry from different chemical groups.
FIRESTARTER is made up of active ingredients from two chemical groups, diflufenican from the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC) group 12 (phenyl ethers) and flufenacet from group 15 (a-oxyacetamides). The complimentary combination of active ingredients in the formulation give contact and residual activity on a range of annual grass and broad-leaved weeds when used pre- or post-emergence in wheat and barley, including annual meadow-grass, black-grass, common chickweed, common field-speedwell, field pansy, field forget-me-not, groundsel, mayweeds and red dead-nettle.
Black-grass is one of the most competitive weeds in winter cereals with as few as 10 plants/m2 resulting in a 13% yield loss. Given that black-grass plants can produce as many as 1000 seeds per plant, populations can build rapidly. Add to this the fact that most UK black-grass populations show some level of resistance to ACCase and ALS herbicides, black-grass control remains the most challenging issue for cereal growers in many areas.
FIRESTARTER can be a useful component of your black-grass herbicide approach when used in programmes with other modes of action, and it is physically compatible with a wide range of other herbicides.
See the Life Scientific website for physically compatible tank-mixes.
FIRESTARTER has been registered by CRD based on equivalence to its reference product Liberator and can be used on winter wheat and barley with a maximum individual dose of 0.6L/Ha up to 31st March in the year of harvest and a maximum total dose of 0.9L/Ha. Where the total dose exceeds 0.6 L/ha, the first application of any sequence must be made before GS 13 of the crop and a minimum of 6 weeks must elapse between treatments. The second application of any sequence must not exceed 0.3 L/ha. Firestarter can also be used on Spring wheat and barley crops.
