Syngenta unveils new vegetable crop protection developments

Crop protection developments on show at the Syngenta vegetable agronomy open day at PGRO’s headquarters site near Peterborough included a new foliar insecticide and new fungicides for vegetable crops.

Foliar insecticide emamectin may be available to fruit growers next year and in brassica vegetable crops soon after. In trials it has proven to be effective in controlling caterpillars, with the advantage of being far more targeted at these pests than pyrethroids, says Syngenta.

Characteristics of the product include rapid degradation on the leaf, leading to the potential for shorter harvest intervals and making it a good fit with IPM systems.

Fungicide programme

The company is also developing new fungicide programmes based on active ingredient Isopyrazam, which has already been launched in the UK cereal crop market. IZM has been shown to have a wide spectrum of activity on vegetable diseases, and should provide a step forward in disease control in a range of crops, says Syngenta vegetable technical manager, Jon Ogborn.

A further development will see the availability of Revus (mandipropamid) in lettuce in 2012, offering the potential to improve downy mildew control in the crop. Growers will need to heed stewardship guidelines for tank-mixes and sequences, until co-formulated mandipropamid products are developed.