All over the world the trend is to use less chemicals; agronoms try to work with biological solutions for insect control as much as possible. Also newly developed , non harmful products for fungi control are appearing on the market.

It will take time to get the experience needed for assured protection of the crop with these new methods. Agronoms cannot take the risk of loosing a crop due to insufficient effects and simply have to make sure their cropprotection program is effective. In this article we will share a few tips for an effective and ‘green’ Integrated Pest Management Program.

BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS NEED PRECISE APPLICATION

One of the new products developed in Holland and getting more and more successful is
Enzicur. In general it is effective against fungi and works well against mildew in cucumber, tomatoes and also roses.

ENZICUR has a curative effect on powdery mildew, and kills both spores and mycelium on the treated surface. ENZICUR is safe for humans and environment, development of resistance is not possible.

This product needs precise application as it only works when dissolved and activity stops when spray solution has dried up.  For good results the fungi or spore actually have to make contact with the product. If the product does not get on the fungi or spore hiding behind the stem or on the back side of the leaves, the latters will survive. So one of the essential factors for successful application is a reliable spraying technique.

CLEAN LIGHT TECHNOLOGY

After 4 years of trying another “GREEN” TECHNOLOGY has shows its first successes in
practical application. Clean light is a technique to fight fungi with Uvc light. As you know the sun’s radiation also has a UltraViolet component. This UV radiation
normally kills a lot of fungi and spores in nature without our noticing. However, the glass of the greenhouse does not let UV radiation pass through. To control the fungi in a greenhouse culture, the idea was born to add this radiation artificially. Special UVc lamps were developed and tested. It showed that the UV principle was indeed working in greenhouses.

One problem was finding an easy and regular way to apply the technique. Fungi reproduce every day. So it is essential for population control to repeat the treatment every day or 2 days at maximum. After the technique was build on a micothon , it could be automatically applied. The test grower really saw great results and became enthousiastic. The machine is working there 7 days a week now and mildew is kept in control this way.

We advise agronoms to ensure an effective spraying technique, before integrating biological products in their Integrated Pest Management program. With a combination of biological and chemical PPP’s and integration with UVc crop protection, it will be possible to get even more out of your Micothon spraying robot while creating a sustainable environment for your greenhouse production.