AgroPages-UPL's VACCIPLANT defense stimulant receives regulatory approval-Agricultural news

King of Prussia, PA - UPL NA Inc. announces the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) has granted approval for VACCIPLANT Plant Defense Stimulant for use in lettuce and grapes. The state's growers now have access to a natural extract that stimulates the crop's natural defense mechanisms for enhanced disease resistance, healthier plants and increased yields.

The CDPR approval of VACCIPLANT provides an important new tool for growers to control devastating crop diseases, such as downy mildew in lettuce and powdery mildew in grapes.

A preventative treatment, VACCIPLANT is a natural biocontrol product that triggers crops' defense mechanisms and protects them against a wide range of pathogens. VACCIPLANT has been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of disease, improve overall plant health and increase yield potential in multiple crops, including citrus, pome fruit, fruiting vegetables, cole crops and leafy vegetables.

The technology of VACCIPLANT, when applied to actively growing plants, improves conventional spray performance using both SAR (systemic acquired resistance) and ISR (induced systemic resistance) modes of action to stimulate the salicylic and jasmonic acid pathways, and it can be used in rotation as part of a resistance management program.

Lettuce and grape performance trials

In lettuce trials in California, VACCIPLANT improved the number of marketable lettuce heads, the weight of the lettuce heads and the number of boxes per acre over the commercial standard. And no crop response was observed in any of the trials conducted.

While VACCIPLANT grape trials showed similar performance in disease control to the commercial chemical standards, the treatments with VACCIPLANT demonstrated greater fruit size and higher fruit quality than the non-VACCIPLANT treatments, and the VACCIPLANT programs showed less leaf necrosis than the market standard non-biological treatments.

"UPL is committed to delivering innovative strategies and product solutions that are customized to meet the productivity and sustainability goals that growers have for their fruit, tree nut, vines and vegetable crops," said Karen Westcott, Marketing Manager, Specialty Crops, UPL. "VACCIPLANT is another addition to an integrated pest management program that helps improve plant health and protect the crop from damaging disease pressures."

UPL offers an integrated portfolio of agricultural solutions for specialty crops, including biological, crop protection and post-harvest solutions.