Re-instatement of Signum label recommendation in lettuce
The protectant and systemic fungicide Signum, seen as an excellent first choice for the control of Sclerotinia, Rhizoctonia and Botrytis, has had its label recommendation for use in lettuce re-instated. This means that growers of outdoor and indoor lettuces can integrate this fungicide into their disease programme, from the 1st of April onwards.
’The combination of boscalid and pyraclostrobin in Signum leads to top levels of disease control in lettuce and offers broad-spectrum activity. In trials and in commercial use this fungicide has regularly produced leading levels of disease control for Sclerotinia, Rhizoctonia and Botrytis. Signum is also active on non-label diseases such as Stemphyllium and has additional positive effects on reducing the incidence of undesirable post-harvest symptoms such as Pink Rib, discoloration and dehydration,’ reports Simon Townsend, Speciality Agronomy Manager for BASF.
Simon points out that in trials Signum reduced Sclerotinia from 69% in the untreated to just 23% in the treated and resulted in yield increases of 75% over the untreated. ’Its use also reduced Botrytis levels down to just 4% from 40% in the untreated, and increased yields by 78%. In further trials aimed at Rhizoctonia, Signum increased the percentage of marketable heads by 146%. Many salad growers have noted the excellent disease control as well as the many additional effects that Signum has on quality, yield and shelf-life characteristics. In a market where quality and visual appeal is key, broad-spectrum disease control plus additional quality criteria are important to the grower.’
’The early use of Signum in a programme will help in the production of high quality salad crops with good visual appeal which means good sales and returns for growers.’ concludes Simon Townsend.
Recommended from the 1st of April, the first Signum spray should be applied to lettuce as a protectant application as soon as the young plants have recovered after transplanting, usually 1-2 weeks after planting, at a dose rate of 1.5 kg per ha in water volumes of 200 to 900 litres. Two applications can be made to the crop. For Sclerotinia control, it is particularly important to apply before infection has taken place. As infection in lettuce takes place on petioles and older leaves in contact with the soil, it is better to make the first application of Signum before the outer leaves touch the soil and as early as possible in the spray programme.
Signum also has SOLAs for many other crops including protected leaf herbs and protected and outdoor leafy brassica crops grown for baby leaf production. The fungicide Invader also has new SOLA’s for all these crops including outdoor lettuce. Invader controls downy mildew at a dose rate of 2kg/ha, with up to 3 applications per crop.
Growers intending to use a SOLA are required to know that, prior to application, they require a copy of the SOLA notification document, which they should keep with their records. Individual SOLA notification documents can be viewed and downloaded from the CRD web site.
