Last autumn (2023) Glenn commissioned a trial at the STRI in Bingley, Yorkshire.
One of the aims was to see how we get the best level of disease control.
The trial included a few different experimental products at varying rates as they zone in on the final version to get registered.
But for the sake of this blog I’ll just show the products we have available, when we get registrations we can come back and reveal more…
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As we’ve seen in many trials before both at the STRI in Yorkshire, and ISTI in Ireland the product combination known as “AIM” consistency comes in best in class on Microdochium patch disease control.
AIM both plays to the strengths of each of the constituent products involved, and offers 3 different fungicidal modes of action to offer great levels of control. You can read more about how the AIM strategy works here.
In last seasons trial at the STRI the first application was applied at 3% disease, that doesn’t sound a lot but would be unacceptable in some situations. The ‘A‘ – Ascernity was applied on the 5th October.
The trialist who did the study will have been doing much like what is done out in the real world, both using the tools available to them to monitor periods of building disease pressure (like Turf Advisor) and also scouting regularly for the first signs of disease outbreaks in order to target that first application.
The second application went down on the 25th October the “I” – Instrata Elite.
By that time the untreated had surged to 15% disease cover, and was now sitting at 11%. With the Instrata application the treated plots were holding an average of 2%.
The third and final application went down on the 17th November “M” – Medallion. At that time the untreated was touching 23% so pressure was clearly high.
The drone photo of the trial set up (at the top of the blog) was taken 10 days after that final application.
The aim of this blog was not to prescriptively say “these are the correct dates to apply AIM to get success“, we know pressures will be different for different sites and in different years, but hopefully it highlights that we continue to fund research to help you get the best control from the products in your arsenal.
The AIM strategy consistently shows great results, so if you are not already aware its worth looking into further.
