ADAS/BASF Sclerotinia free monitoring service returns for 2010
ADAS and BASF’s web-based Sclerotinia monitoring tool has gone live for the 2010 season in what is predicted to be a potentially "high risk" year by ADAS’ Plant Pathologist, Dr Peter Gladders. The tool, which is open-access and free to all, can be accessed from 26th March at www.totaloilseedcare.co.uk.
"There are still a lot of unknowns about the season but what we do know that there will be a legacy of sclerotia in the soil from previous seasons, particularly the 2007 and 2008 seasons," he says. The sclerotia will have remained viable in the cool wet soils of this winter and last autumn’s cultivations will have brought them to the surface posing a risk to this year’s crop.
He reminds growers that the threat starts at flowering as sclerotia germinate when soil temperatures reach 10˚C, and that the risk continues for as long as the crop is in flower.
Will Reyer, Oilseed Rape Product Manager at BASF adds: "given that sclerotinia fungicides are mainly protectant, accurate application timing in advance of the disease is essential which makes disease monitoring key to successful control, particularly in a higher risk year." Both Filan and Compass are excellent protectant fungicides which returned in excess of 2.5t/ha yield over untreated plots in extreme disease pressure testing funded by HGCA in 2008.
The ADAS/BASF monitoring tool is underpinned by 10 years of data collected since the tool’s launch and it is widely valued by advisors and farmers as one of the most accurate sclerotinia epidemic prediction methods available in the UK.
The service monitors the germination of the pathogen’s sclerotia at six sites in Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent and Devon. Germination assessments are made each week for 12 weeks and results are updated every Friday. Each site will also be supported by petal tests which help establish disease pressure from air-borne spores. This data is used in conjunction with the sclerotial germination test to accurately predict the risk of an epidemic.
Dr Gladders advises that growers should use the tool to help prioritise the riskiest crops based on past rotations and fields known to have had sclerotinia infections in recent previous seasons. "Also bear in mind that over the fence infection is a problem because spores will travel easily [for up to 100m] from these high risk fields; where the risk is high a fungicide application at early flowering is recommended with a follow-up spray when the whole crop is in flower two to three weeks later, this will be particularly important in prolonged flowering crops," he concludes.
