With the diminishing choice of chemistry and the need to employ a sustainable resistance strategy in vegetables and salad crops, specialist agronomist Dave Bolshaw of County Crops recommends the new formulation of iprodione, Rovral WG.

Rovral WG is believed to be particularly effective when it comes to Botrytis control.

Bolshaw said: “It is very important for growers of specialist crops to have a choice of fungicides, just like the arable growers do. So it was great that, when Rovral WG was re-registered this year it retained the majority of its label recommendations including lettuce, Brussels sprouts and cauliflowers.

“I understand that PSD has also granted some new SOLAs [Specific Off-label Approvals] to replace those previously issued for Rovral Flo and Rovral WP including leafy salads and herbs. The SOLA system is essential for growers of minor crops and I am very supportive of it. It really helps vegetable growers who are increasingly struggling to find suitable and effective fungicides to use,” he added.

Bolshaw has been recommending Rovral in its many forms for a number of years now and considers it to be a very useful tool against Botrytis.

Botrytis is a very damaging disease, causing problems of yield, quality and appearance. “The disease enters the plant via broken or damaged tissue caused by machinery or adverse weather and then it spreads further in wet and humid weather,” he said. “It is essential to keep it out of the crop through a planned programme using fungicides with different modes of action.”

“In lettuce for example we aim to use as few fungicides as possible but as many as necessary in order to produce high quality produce, within the confines of the label and protocols. Rovral WG has played a useful part in this crop by controlling Botrytis so well.”

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