Syngenta has launched a new dedicated 'early blight' and Potato Blight spray that effectively tackles the two key foliar blight diseases in one treatment.
Amphore Plus combines the industry-leading mandipropamid blight control with difenoconazole, which has been proven effective on all strains of early blight (Alternaria).
The product’s launch is the latest development in the Syngenta Potato Science initiative.
The company’s field technical manager, Stephen Williams, said: “Amphore Plus is a simple and cost-effective one-product solution to prevent Alternaria and blight. The highly effective results, seen in UK and European trials, offer the chance to keep crops green and clean of disease right through the season.”
Potato crops hit by infection suffer rapid green leaf loss and early senescence, which could reduce yield by up to 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, new Syngenta potato application trials have identified potentially innovative design features that could further enhance consistent spray deposition through the crop canopy.
The new prototype Syngenta Potato Nozzle - developed as part of the Syngenta Potato Science initiative - has refined the importance of spray angle in achieving penetration of the crop canopy. Their trials found it to be capable of retaining more even distribution in the top, mid and lower leaves and stem.
The design held 15 per cent more spray in the mid canopy, compared to the current Syngenta Potato Nozzle, and up to 35 per cent more than some other angled nozzles used in the trial.
Reporting on the trials at British Potato 2013, Syngenta application specialist, Ben Magri, said: “Importantly, the new design also retained the spray penetration down to the bottom of the canopy. That would assure greater coverage of lower leaves and stems for better blight prevention and to enhance the performance of Reglone desiccation applications, for example.
“The new nozzle design delivered 94 per cent greater spray deposition in the mid and bottom canopy, compared to traditional flat fan nozzles.'
The Syngenta trials found that traditional flat fan nozzles gave the poorest performance in terms of spray distribution and retention through the potato crop canopy, as well as issues with drift when conditions were anything but ideal.
Magri also highlighted that spray deposition in the crop proved largely irrespective of water volume. “Our recommendation would be to use 100 litres per hectare early in the season, to maximise retention on the smaller leaf area and optimise sprayer output. Once crops meet across the rows, however, the minimum water volume should be increased to 200 litres per hectare,” he advised.
The Syngenta Potato Nozzle prototype design will initially be manufactured in 03, 04 and 05 sizes, to deliver the desired water volumes at spraying speeds of around 10km per hour.
New nozzle manufacturing capability will enable a short production run of nozzles for full field-scale evaluation under various conditions, prior to commercial availability in 2014.
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