The importance of a clean start for IPM

The importance of a clean start, in all of our crop sectors, is vitally important. Along with variety selection, it’s one of the fundamentals of an IPM programme. 

Access to seed treatments across horticultural crops is reducing. First the loss of neonics, then thiram were tremendous blows. More recently, access to Force (tefluthrin) for bean seed fly control is causing issues in several crops.  We are carrying out a number of trials in SCEPTREplus to look for alternatives to thiram.

We regularly liaise with manufacturers and CRD on seed treatments. There are several challenges that we are facing for many seed treatments including extrapolating data from pelleted to film-coated seeds, seeding rates and impact to birds and mammals.

However, there are things that growers can do to maximise the quality of their seed, from starting with building a good relationship with your seed provider to ensure they are carrying out the required quality checks on batches, through to storing it well – and that doesn’t really include the dashboard of the farm van! 

We all know that seed can harbour disease material, and seed providers do test batches to make sure they are providing the healthiest seed. But, interestingly, a lot of our seed comes from areas across the globe where the seed crop is poorly managed, often resulting in systemic infections. Maybe more conversations with seed providers can help to resolve us ‘buying in’ these issues that are getting harder to control?

Starting material in horticultural crops, of course, varies enormously, from saplings, bare-rooted plants to vegetative cuttings, but seed health and quality accounts for a large proportion of how you all begin the process of supplying your market. 

My Knowledge Exchange colleague, Dawn Teverson, has pulled together a range of resources which seek to address this problem across a variety of crops. We hope you’ll find something of interest, but if you can’t find what you’re looking for, or have specific questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with either Dawn or myself.

Further resources: