CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY way of cultivation and working towards time is over when only one spraying is enough. We’ll have to combine methods. We also have the fairly- recent product Beloukha at our disposal. It has a good effect in an early dehaulmed crop. It doesn’t work so well in older crops. Beloukha is just a supplement Marnix Gijlers, product manager at Belchim, Beloukha’s supplier, endorses this experience. ‘Belchim has been testing the product for several years now with the natural perlagonic acid as an active substance, extracted from rapeseed oil, among other substances. The first results show that it can act as a reinforcing agent in combination with an existing haulm killer such as Spotlight Plus, for example. By combining this with Beloukha, a grower reduces the amount of active substance used in chemical agents. This can be important for cultivation under the current requirements of Milieukeur and/or Planetproof. This is why we see it only as a supplement to the existing range of products. The effect as a haulm killer, considering the test and practical experience, is not comparable to Reglone and not as strong as we had hoped’. More attention for spraying techniques Hamming further indicates that the importance of the right spraying technique will increase. ‘When it comes to the use of products such as Spotlight and Quickdown, there’s a significant difference in results with various spraying techniques. You have to think about the right nozzle choice and the correct timing of the application. Factors such as weather, temperature and wind intensity also become more important when you kill haulm. In the case of killing haulm in seed potatoes, it will soon be more important to take the delayed effect of the residual substances into account. So if you want the seed to grow to a certain size, you’ll have to treat them a few days earlier with the existing remaining products than with Reglone. And you’ll have to keep in mind that you need to go on spraying a little longer against viruses and Phytophthora, because the haulm remains active for longer. way of cultivation and working towards the moment of Getting used to a new spraying pattern For the suppliers of the products now available, the stop on diquat comes as no surprise. ‘We’ve been taking this into account for several years now and have worked very hard on tests to respond to it’, says Edwin Hendriks. He is crop manager at Certis Europe, the supplier of Quickdown. ‘So we now know that in seed potato cultivation you can use the method of first haulm killing, then spraying Quickdown and then, if necessary, opt to use Spotlight. In consumption potato crops, depending on the earliness of the variety, one or two treatments with Quickdown are enough and the same applies to starch potato crops. The only thing growers will have to get used to is the sometimes totally different picture you get in the field compared to Reglone. The haulm no longer turns brown in one day but, depending on the time and variety, it will turn green and then more slowly brown. The products that we have available now act more slowly, but the effect is the same and sometimes even better. Return of the haulm puller What has already been mentioned is the possible return of the haulm puller and manufacturer REMA from the village of Ferwert has already been anticipating this. Last year, Potato World magazine already published an extensive report on the haulm puller 2.0 that the company introduced in 2017. With the disappearance of diquat, it looks as if they are now reaping the first rewards. ‘This year, we delivered a 0-series and we’re now preparing for series production’, says co-ow ner Pieter Regnerus. ‘We’ve noticed that growers of the latest haulm-rich varieties have been searching for some time for a method that kills haulm in one operation. That didn’t always work even with Reglone, but it does with our haulm puller. Many growers who have large areas to harvest see the haulm puller as a machine that they need in addition to the method of chemical haulm killing. The haulm is dead almost immediately, you don’t have to wait. So in the last weeks of the harvest, the haulm puller is a godsend for them. Furthermore, in addition to seed potato growers, many starch potato growers have also expressed an interest. Mainly because they find that they sometimes can’t achieve with the remaining haulm killer products. The capacity is not as high as with a field crop sprayer, but 8 to 10 hectares a day of haulm killing is certainly feasible with our four-row machine’. ● Leo Hanse Potato World 2019 • number 1 35 Pagina 34
Pagina 36Scoor meer met een webshop in uw verenigingsbladen. Velen gingen u voor en publiceerden brochures online.
Potatoworld 2019/1 Lees publicatie 51Home