Taking the pressure off chemistry – Arable Farming – David Howard
Hutchinsons has been exploring a range of biological solutions to disease, including the biostimulant Scyon which contains a blend of four naturally-occurring signalling metabolites and potassium, zinc, sulphur and manganese...
Scyon is claimed to help the plant optimise uptake and transportation of nutrition, causing it to increase its metabolism and put more energy into defence against diseases.
Over the last three years trials have shown Scyon to be effective in reducing septoria and rust levels in crops, says David Howard, Hutchinsons’ head of integrated crop management (ICM).
“Plant defence is an energy expensive process and this is the reason why plant defences are not turned on at all times, because this could exhaust the plants resources.”
David Howard, Head of Integrated Crop Management
Instead, defences are turned on when the plant senses the arrival of a pest or pathogen. Scyon works with this reaction to strengthen the plant’s defences, upregulating the plant’s metabolism by optimising nutrient availability and balance in the plant which increases energy available for defence.
Building block
Mr Howard adds: “It stimulates the plant’s natural SAR [systemic acquired resistance] pathway, releasing defensive proteins and metabolites. At the same time, it stimulates the abscisic acid pathway which reduces plant stress.”
While these products will not replace the need for chemical fungicides yet, they can act as an important building block in ICM and by applying Scyon at GS30/TO in wheat, pressure on following sprays can be reduced, says Mr Howard.
“When this product’s effect on disease response wears off, defences will drop, so it is important to still use a fungicide. It looks like once you generate that [resistance] effect it remains at effective levels for around 30 days, so that gives us the opportunity to lower our disease pressure for the following sprays.
“It creates consistency of control, which might be because the plant defences are better at dealing with certain isolates that some fungicides might struggle with. It’s hard to know as a farmer or agronomist which isolates you’re challenged with at T0 or T1, so this product helps by letting the plant’s evolved defences deal with some of those isolates.
“It’s all about strategic management of the crop. There are a lot of agronomic decisions made before this point, from variety choice to drilling, and we have to look at all aspects of managing the crop, particularly when it comes to nutrition, to improve the plant’s health and making it ready to fight off disease.”
Hutchinsons is now exploring how Scyon can be used in other crops, including for control of ramularia in barley and light leaf spot in oilseed rape.
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