- Biological seed treatment aids establishment and minimises early disease
- Wide range of crops can be treated
- Few seed treatments options following loss of thiram
Integral® Pro, BASF’s biological seed treatment, had been granted approval for two Extension of Authorisation of Minor Use (EAMUs) registration on spinach and on outdoor and protected angelica, baby leaf crops, balm, basil, bay, burnet (salad), caraway leaves, celery leaves, chervil, chives, choi sum, coriander leaves, cress, curry plant, dill, edible flowers, endive, fennel as a leafy herb, fenugreek, hyssop, lamb’s lettuce, land cress, lavender,lettuce, lovage, marjoram, mint, nasturtium, nettle, oregano, oriental cabbages, parsley, plantain, purslane, rocket, rocket (including wild rocket), rosemary, sage, savory, sorrel, spinach beet, sweet cicely, tarragon, tatsoi and thyme.
Integral Pro is manufactured by BASF as a biological seed treatment and is comprised of Bacillus amyloquefaciens (M600).
Rob Storer, business development manager of BASF said, “This is an important step for growers as there is a real lack of oomycete products for controlling Pythiums and Phytopthoras in speciality crops. Having a product that can help strengthen and protect the plant from the moment it is planted, is another important tool in the toolbox.“
He added, “Getting baby leaf crops established well is imperative if they are to avoid early diseases such as damping off. Integral Pro boosts plant health and allows the crop to grow away more rapidly. Just what you want.“
Richard Pett, Development Manger for Jepco who produce a wide range of leaves for the manufacturing and retail food services from their farms in Lincolnshire and Essex says, “I worked with Integral Pro in trials last year and I think it has value. I intend to continue working with it in other crops. I trialed it on late sown spinach last year and the results looked good. This is the first year we are without the seed treatment thiram which was used to minimise early diseases such as damping off.“
An AHDB study (FV 367) in spinach found out that seed stock that germinated and grew away quickly was less severely affected by damping off. Integral Pro has been shown to improve plant establishment and tolerance to pests and diseases.
The EAMU can be downloaded from the CRD web site:
JCM Media Contact: Rebecca Dawes – rebecca@janecraigie.com or 07792 467730