The damp and humid weather conditions this week will dictate the use of fungicides in combining peas.

Fungicide Walabi helps prevent the most prevalent crop diseases, including leaf, pod spot and grey mould, according to the BASF.

The product was approved for use in combining peas last year, but it was already the standard fungicide treatment in France because of its excellent performance and broad disease spectrum.

Trials have shown that Walabi is 90 per cent effective on Mycosphaerella, leaf disease, and Ascochyta, pod spot disease. The product also controls Botrytis, grey mould, to commercial standards.

These diseases can reduce the yield by up to 30 per cent and affect the quality of combining peas, particularly when it is damp and humid at flowering.

John Young, BASF peas and beans product manager, said: “A treatment of Walabi gives an extra yield of 0.84t/ha over the untreated.”

There is normally very little time between the risk assessment of diseases in peas and the need to apply fungicide.

BASF advise growers to monitor the weather when the crops are flowering, and to be ready to apply fungicide if the weather is wet and changeable.

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