A new fungicide with potential to improve yields and enhance quality of fresh peas, beans and strawberries has been approved for use by growers this season.
Switch has combines two new active ingredients with powerful action to protect the leaf surface and control disease from within the plant.
Approval for an entirely new fungicide will enable fresh pea and bean growers and strawberry producers to control key diseases this season, with the potential for improved yields and crop quality. Switch contains a unique combination of two new active ingredients - cyprodinil and fludioxonil - to provide effective disease protection on the leaf surface, along with systemic movement within the plant to target a broad-spectrum of diseases.
Switch offers excellent control of the increasing incidence and severity of Sclerotinia in peas and beans, along with useful control of Mycospharella and Ascochyta at the flowering application timing, along with Botrytis in both peas and beans. Pea and bean growers are advised to apply Switch from the onset of flowering, either at the first signs of disease or where forecasts show a risk of infection. A second application may be made where disease risk remains.
In strawberries, the primary target for control with Switch is the damaging soft-fruit disease, Botrytis Grey Mould, with activity on Black spot (Colletotrichum acutatum). Trials have also shown effective control of pathogens that affect fruit quality and shelf life, including Botrytis and Penicillium. Switch is approved for both outdoor and indoor strawberry production, with two applications permitted in a disease control programme.
Strawberry growers can apply Switch right up to three days before harvest, where the risk of disease infection could affect fruit quality. The pre-harvest interval in peas and beans is 14 days.
Syngenta Speciality Crops Manager, Bruce McKenzie, highlights weather patterns of increasingly frequent heavy rain showers, followed by hot periods, often creates the humid conditions where disease can thrive in peas, beans and fruit crops. "The dual-action of Switch for surface protection and systemic movement can help growers cope with the disease threat more effectively than ever.
"The initial approval for Switch in fresh peas, fresh beans and strawberries has the potential to help growers achieve both higher yields and improve the quality of their produce, with healthier green peas and beans, along with longer lasting strawberries on the retail shelf," he adds.
