To help growers plan onwards and optimise plant wellness on nurseries year - round , ICL has developed a ground - breaking new Plant Health Planner .
“ A digital web - based peter , it is design to both simplify and optimise plant life wellness programmes on UK nurseries , ” excuse ICL Technical Area Sales Manager , Sam Rivers . “ In line with the Sustainable Use Directive , it will facilitate growers thin out their trust on chemical harvest protection products .
“ With an ever - diminishing range of available chemicals , agriculturist are adopt a different mindset and a more sustainable IPM approach to keep their crops healthy . This mean ethnic controls are mature in importance again as the first line of Defense Department , followed by program biological approaches to encourage works health and controller aim pest and disease . As a last repair , growers have a diminishing range of chemic mathematical product to fall back on .
“ In this new era , to be successful it is key to have a plan approach – which is where the ICL Plant Health Planner comes in , ” says Sam .
Having gathered info as to the plant wellness job area on a particular nursery , the timings , crops affected and intersection currently used – member of ICL ’s BASIS qualified expert squad will flag up any ethnic improvements and produce an accompanying bespoke Plant Health Plan .
“ Once set up , nursery yield stave can access their architectural plan via a mobile , pill or desktop data processor , ” explains Sam . “ Easy to practice , they simply tap the calendar week number to view recommended activity . For example , this might be to apply a biostimulant to boost plant health ahead of in high spirits powdery mildew press on the glasshouse , or to use nematode worm to point vine weevil grubs at the correct time of twelvemonth . “
The Planner features recommendation around ICL ’s expanding chain of mountains of biologic production plus the broad - spectrum fungicide Amistar . biologic products admit the Seeka nematode range for control vine weevil larvae , WFT and sciarid fly , the laurels - winning biorational Pitcher for controlling vine weevil egg , the bio fungicide PreStop as well as ICL ’s proven range of biostimulant products including Hicure and the Vitalnova image .
“ Biostimulants are like multivitamin pill for humans , ” explain Sam . “ It is important to understand that they are not a substitute for a full-bodied IPM programme or a precision nutrition programme , but a welcome addition to promote plants through periods of stress . ”
