Many farmers want to grow their crops with a much reduced or even removed levels of PGRS, pesticides and fungicides, especially as they hear stories that farmers are achieving this. Now, when advocating such a plan I need to point out that it isn’t just a case of adding a wonder drug into the system and everything will be sunshine and Mojitos. If you want to go down this route then the overall system needs to be looked at starting with the most important job on the farm, Nitrogen Management. We have long since ascertained that the sweet spot for N application, where the need for fungicides drops off rapidly, is 180kg/ha.
I am not saying that we can’t help with rates higher than this (humates work well in high N systems) but if zero chemical is the aim then low N input and micronutrient balancing becomes essential.
Applying the right sort of Nitrogen at the right time means that the plant can handle what you give it, plus you get the results of root health and mass which is the starting point of a healthy crop and a good yield.
Also remember that you should never apply any nutrient alone as this always causes many problems with lock ups and lack of availability to the plant. For example, when you apply Nitrogen you lock up Potassium and Copper, which means a lack of lignin leading to a need for PGRS. I suggest applying liquid Nitrogen with Nurture N (Fulvic acid) to allow you to reduce Nitrogen levels to acceptable rates and then follow through with a foliar to make sure that all the bangs and whistles are there so that the Nitrogen works correctly. For this reason, Pulsar is one of the go to tools. It has small amounts of many micronutrients so that the NO3 in the leaf is quickly processed into amino acids and proteins. This is further aided by the addition of Citadel which is already in the form of amino acids and proteins to increase Nitrogen availability.
The final part of this process is the addition of Silicon as Potassium Silicate (Zenith) and salicylic acid (Armour). Silicon thickens cell walls, strengthens the framework of the leaf and most importantly thickens the protective waxy layer on the surface of the leaf, meaning that it is extremely hard for a pest or disease to get through. Also, the Silicon makes the sap unpalatable to pests, such as cabbage stem flea beetle, which is an enormous help on OSR.
The Armour helps both as making the plant more naturally resistant to diseases plus it aids the movement of water and nutrients around the plant.
So, as we can see the removal of agrochemicals from your system is possible but only if you look at the big picture. This process can be far cheaper than using agrochemicals so it is well worth the effort; your Aiva rep can help you formulate a plan to get the job done.