Bayer CropScience has launched two products to protect potato crops against disease.
The first, Infinito, is a mid-to-late-season blight fungicide, based on Fluopicolide - an active ingredient discovered in the UK.
According to product manager Andy Albert, Fluopicolide differs from all other potato blight products available and it is unique in acting on foliar, stem and tuber blight at all stages of the blight life cycle.
“There are no varietal restrictions with Infinito and it can be used on all crops - seed, process and pre-packing. It is also compatible with insecticides, desiccants and foliar nutrients and is rainfast in one hour,” Albert added.
The product is featured on the Tesco ‘Nature’s Choice’ 2006 Plant Protection Product List.
Bayer’s second new release, Biscaya is a foliar insecticide, which controls all aphids, using a sunflower oil-cased product rather than a solvent.
Company specialist, Bill Lankford, said Biscaya greatly helped to improve retention on the plant leaf and that it had a “reassuring environmental profile”.
“The oil forms a film after the water has evaporated, enhancing penetration of the active ingredient, thiacloprid, into the leaf, thereby prolonging activity …Detailed field research and studies of realistic exposure conditions have revealed its low toxicity to fish and other aquatic organisms, while we have also seen that it has no impact on honey bees,” he explained.
