Spring foliar applications to support plant health

Soft fruit agronomist, Neil Holmes, discusses Spring foliar applications to support soft fruit plant health. With recent improvements in both temperature and light levels, strawberry crops are in flower at the earliest forced sites. Open flower is a susceptible time for plants as it permits the entry of Botrytis spores. High humidity conditions created by warm days under tunnels followed by cool nights, creates conditions conducive to powdery mildew development especially for over wintered crops. Zynergy provides easily absorbed copper, zinc and sulphur to the crop. Copper is a component of phenolic compounds produced by the plant in response to a pathogen.  Zinc is an essential nutrient required for the plant’s own immune system to function optimally (Cabot et al., 2019). Zynergy should be applied preventatively, as a spring foliar application, to support plant health at a rate of 0.5L/ha, with a suitable adjuvant such as NA13 at 0.1% of spray volume if it is being applied as a solo application.  If applying Zynergy with a plant protection product (PPP), then the NA13 can be omitted from the spray application. Sulphomex is a combination of ammonium nitrogen and sulphur. Nitrogen is used for protein synthesis to support the onward growth of the crop and sulphur compounds are directly or indirectly involved in biotic and abiotic stress management, metabolism, and signalling. One such sulphur compound which exhibits these responses is the tripeptide glutathione which supports antioxidant defence and allows the normal physiological functioning of the plant (Hasanuzzaman et al., 2017). Sulphomex can be applied at a rate of 1.0-2.0L/ha to a strawberry crop, with the rate varying depending on the size of the canopy. Both products represent excellent value for money, typically costing less than £5/ha/application for the grower. For further information on spring foliar applications, please contact your local OMEX technical manager, here.   Reference: Cabot, C., Martos, S., Llugany, M., Gallego, B., Tolrà, R & Poschenreider, C. (2019) A Role for Zinc in Plant Defense Against Pathogens and Herbivores. Frontiers in Plant Science 10, 1171. Hasanuzzaman, H., Nahar, K., Anee, T. I. & Fujita, M. (2017) Glutathione in plant: biosynthesis and physiological role in environmental stress tolerance. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants 23 (2), 249-268.