Chemical giant BASF has recommended that salad growers should start using Signum early for high-quality lettuce production.
The protectant fungicide Signum can be used in outdoor and protected lettuce from April onwards, and controls bouts of Sclerotinia, Rhizoctonia and Botrytis, said BASF.
Applied from the April onwards, the first Signum spray should be used on lettuce as a protectant application, as soon as the young plants have recovered after transplanting at a dose rate of 1.5 kilos per hectare in water volumes of 200-900 litres.
For Sclerotinia control, it is 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, as early as possible in the spray programme.
Simon Townsend, product stewardship manager for BASF, said: “The unique combination of boscalid and pyraclostrobin gives Signum the edge in terms of control levels and disease spectrum. The carboxamide fungicide boscalid has protectant, translaminar and locally systemic activity, while the strobilurin pyraclostrobin binds tightly to waxy layers and has translaminar activity. The combined activity of both actives in Signum has produced top levels of disease control in lettuce.”
In trials against Sclerotinia, Signum reduced disease levels from 69 per cent in the untreated to just 23 per cent in the treated. This high level of control resulted in a substantial yield increase of 75 per cent over the untreated.
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