Crop management during a challenging season topped the agenda for growers attending the recent Potatoes in Practice showcase in Scotland.
Bringing together the latest research and demonstrations, the annual event at Balruddery Farm near Dundee, was hosted by the James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s Rural College SRUC and crop management company Agrii.
It also provided crop protection company BASF the opportunity to demonstrate its support for the adoption of practices and solutions which improve sustainability and resilience in potato production.
This includes the Hutton institute’s Fight Against Blight (FAB), a tool which has identified and mapped potato late blight pathogen populations since 2006, with up to 1,500 field samples from across Britain.
BASF agronomy manager Scott Milne said: “We enjoyed welcoming visitors from across the potato growing and processing chain, exchanging insights on the current season and demonstrating the performance of our two fungicides.
“Honesty is a liquid tuber treatment containing Xemium, available in partner packs with an application enhancer. It has strong activity on rhizoctonia, silver scurf, and black dot, with incidental activity against dry rot and gangrene.”
These diseases can have a significant impact on the yield and marketability of potato crops. Honesty also brings physiological benefits, giving more stolon initiation, leading to more uniform potatoes and higher marketable yield.
BASF’s other fungicide Allstar contains Xemium. Applied in-furrow at planting, it gives moderate control of black scurf caused by soil-borne Rhizoctonia solani. In-furrow application means the soil around the plant is treated, rather than the potato itself.
“We could see from the potatoes in the plots that using Allstar produces clean, uniform, and bright-looking potatoes,” said Mr Milne.
A third BASF demonstration plot at the event contained a beneficials nectar mix, which is designed for integrated pest management, and provides food for natural predators that help control aphids.
Aphid-borne viruses can affect ware and seed growers, causing significant economic losses. Potato leafroll virus is a re-emerging UK threat and has become the main virus seen in seed certification inspections, said Adrian Fox, of Fera Science.