Grapes

Bunch of healthy grapes

BOTRY-Zen® has been extensively trialled in New Zealand vineyards since 1997 and the results of these trials have demonstrated that BOTRY-Zen® provides protection against Botrytis infections comparable with standard chemical fungicide programmes.

Initial field trials of BOTRY-Zen® in California, Germany and Italy have produced positive results similar to those achieved in New Zealand. Through the 2006 vintage in the German Rhineland, field activity produced promising results across the four trial sites all of which, at different stages of the season, experienced heavy disease infection levels.

The Company released ARMOUR-Zen® onto the New Zealand market in the 2007/2008 season and is progressively undertaking international field-trialling and registration for the commercial release in key international markets (Germany/Austria in the first instance).

2008 Vintage Results

Assessments show that a BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programme is providing protection that is comparable with a chemical fungicide programme. There were higher levels of Botrytis in the field compared with the 2007 season, with up to 40% crop loss in unsprayed treatments. The results from Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough field trials show the standard BOTRY-Zen® programme which had been recommended to growers, (that is an integrated approach using BOTRY-Zen®, Switch® and ARMOUR-Zen®) performed as well as the chemical fungicide treatment (refer to Figure 1 below). The full season chemical-free programme using BOTRY-Zen® and ARMOUR-Zen® also performed well against both Botrytis rot and sour rot (sour rot is not tolerated by wineries as it affects the flavour of the wine), significantly reducing disease to a level similar to that of the chemical fungicide programme.

Figure 1: Botrytis Crop Loss at Harvest 2008 in Grapes in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

This shows that the BOTRY-Zen®, ARMOUR-Zen® and Integrated programmes performed equally as well as the full season fungicide programme in both the Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

2009 Vintage Results

In a season that produced some heavy Botrytis pressure the BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programmes have performed well. Trial results show that ARMOUR-Zen® applications late season are significantly reducing Botrytis crop loss. There has been positive feedback from growers who used a BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programme this season and will continue to expand their application areas in the coming season. Figure 2 shows the results from grower-applied programmes in Marlborough. All of the blocks were Sauvignon Blanc, except for Vineyard 1C which was Pinot Gris. In five of the six blocks the Integrated programme performed at least as well as the Conventional programmes in reducing Botrytis crop loss. The results from vineyards 4 and 5 would suggest that a BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programme, without the inclusion of any chemical Botryticides, can effectively control Botrytis.

Figure 2: Botrytis Crop Loss in Marlborough, New Zealand, Harvest 2009.

Vineyard 1A had no Conventional comparison block. The vineyards applying ARMOUR-Zen® made between 3 and 5 applications through the mid to late season.

In five of the six blocks the Integrated programme performed at least as well as the Conventional programmes in reducing Botrytis crop loss. The results from vineyards 4 and 5 would suggest that a BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programme, without the inclusion of any chemical Botryticides, can effectively control Botrytis.

Ripe kiwifruit

Kiwifruit

Best Practice for Kiwifruit

Sclerotinia and Botrytis disease levels are controlled with BOTRY-Zen® applications at flowering. BOTRY-Zen® excludes Sclerotinia and Botrytis colonisation and significantly reduces the scarring caused by Sclerotinia and the amount of Botrytis inoculum in the canopy.

Trial conducted by Plant and Food Research

Figure 3: Sclerotinia infection on kiwifruit.

Percentage incidence of fruit scarring due to Sclerotinia on kiwifruit vines sprayed with Rovral® FLO and BOTRY-Zen® in two orchards assessed in December 2005. Bars are standard error of the mean.

Two applications of BOTRY-Zen® at flowering (30% and 90% flowering) significantly reduced fruit scarring to a similar level as that of Rovral® FLO (one application at 90% flowering and a second application 3 weeks later).

	Botrytis on adhering floral tissue (17 Jan 2006) (%)	Botrytis on green kiwifruit leaves with necrosis (17 Jan 2006)	Mean Botrytis stem-end rot in fruit harvested 2 May 2006. Stored in cold storage for 9 weeks
Nil	44.7 (5.4)	60.1 (11.3)	0.93 (0.40)
Rovral® FLO	8.1 (2.5)	59.2 (9.1)	0.27 (0.15)
BOTRY-Zen®	6.6 (2.3)	18.7 (8.9)	0.07 (0.07)

Table 1 shows that two applications of BOTRY-Zen® significantly reduces Botrytis stem-end rot at harvest. BOTRY-Zen® reduces the amount of Botrytis on the adhering flower petals at flowering and then reduces the incidence of Botrytis on dead leaves or leaves with necrosis – resulting in fewer Botrytis spores within the canopy, able to colonise the fruit at harvest.

ARMOUR-Zen® and BOTRY-Zen® have both been included in the product testing programme being carried out by Kiwi Vine Health in their bid to control Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa).

Blackcurrants in flower

Blackcurrants

Best Practice for Blackcurrants

Applications of BOTRY-Zen® at flowering significantly reduce crop loss from Botrytis.

Figure 4: Botrytis in blackcurrants 2004-2005 season.

There is no significant difference in the control achieved with 2 applications of BOTRY-Zen® at flowering and the chemical programme, which consisted of 2 applications of Switch® at flowering.

Figure 5: Botrytis control in blackcurrants in the 2002-2003 seasons.

The BOTRY-Zen® programme (2 applications of BOTRY-Zen® at flowering) gave the same Botrytis control at harvest as the growers’ standard programme (Euparen Multi® and Switch® at flowering). BOTRY-Zen® replaces the chemicals used for Botrytis in blackcurrants. This results in a full season residue-free Botryticide programme with no reduction in Botrytis control.

Peony Rose

Ornamentals

Best Practice for Paeonies

BOTRY-Zen® has been used for several years on peony roses. Regular applications of BOTRY-Zen® throughout the season result in fewer stems dying off at ground level due to Botrytis rot, and strong, healthy foliage.

Figure 6: Peony Stems with Botrytis 2003-2004 Season.

Botrytis causes stem rot at ground level in developing peony shoots. The shoots fall over and are no longer able to produce a flower.

This study was conducted by a grower who applied BOTRY-Zen® and another biological control agent to rows of peonies every 7 days.
BOTRY-Zen® significantly reduced the loss of stems to Botrytis over this period of risk.

The use of BOTRY-Zen® mulch around plants also appears to significantly reduce loss to Botrytis.

Other Crops

Field Tomatoes

The control of Botrytis and Sclerotinia with BOTRY-Zen® was tested in the 2004-2005 season in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand process tomatoes. Although the disease levels were relatively low, BOTRY-Zen® applications over flowering reduced Botrytis incidence compared with the unsprayed and fungicide treatments (Table 2). The crop loss caused by Sclerotinia was very low and there were no clear differences between the treatments for Sclerotinia control (as shown in Table 2).

Treatment	Botrytis	Sclerotinia
Untreated	1.29 a	0.27 a
Fungicide	0.91 b	0.09 a
BOTRY-Zen® at Flowering	0.53 c	0.18 a

Table 2: Average weight (kg) of tomatoes with fruit rots at harvest in 2005.

Means followed by the same letter are not significantly different (P>0.05; LSD test)

BOTRY-Zen® has also been trialled by an organic glasshouse tomato grower with promising results; although deposits were left on fruit, which had to be washed off prior to sale.

Strawberries

In the 2003-2004 season, BOTRY-Zen® was trialled on strawberries in the Waikato, New Zealand. There were very low levels of disease and no difference between the treatments (Untreated, BOTRY-Zen® or fungicide programme) were seen. BOTRY-Zen® was trialled in Sweden on strawberries in 2006 with reports that the product had performed well, controlling rots as well as the fungicide treatment. BOTRY-Zen® and ARMOUR-Zen® are being trialled in Holland this year and the visual results to date are that the BOTRY-Zen®/ARMOUR-Zen® programme has performed as well as the fungicide programme. We are awaiting the statistical analysis.

Stone Fruit

Initial trials with ARMOUR-Zen® applied prior to harvest and then as a post-harvest dip on stone fruit in New Zealand in the 2008-2009 seasons showed promising results. This trial was repeated in Spain in the 2009 season.