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Nigel Bartels is a Horticultural Consultant with Serve-Ag in Huonville, Tasmania. Nigel’s beat spans multiple growing regions across Tasmania. An expert in pome- and stone-fruit crops, Nigel specialises in cherries and apples.
“Cherries are a high value export crop,” says Nigel, “and we’re looking to produce the best and the cleanest product we can. So, the more options we can have in our arsenal to help grow the best cherries over a very long growing season, 16 weeks, which is twice as long as some areas on the mainland, the better.”
“In Tasmania, traditionally it rains pretty consistently most months… We’re under a lot of pressure as far as fungal diseases go.”
Prior to Intuity entering the market last year, it was difficult putting together a disease protection program over such a long season. There are other good fungicides out there, but growers are restricted in the amount of applications they can make per season. “There’s a lot of important factors that go into choosing the right fungicide says Nigel.
Anticipating a major rain event, Nigel had Intuity applied to a crop as a preventative measure: “We had 100mm of rain followed up with some warm weather and Intuity stood up very well. I was very impressed with it.” The most important priority in fungicide selection, says Nigel, is that it does the job and does not damage the crop: “There was no damage to leaves or the tree health when using Intuity and that is just such an important factor when considering fungicide options.”
Impressed with Intuity’s performance, especially under high risk conditions, Nigel has made it a mainstay in his Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes.
Nigel says that, “if it stands up well in Tasmania’s conditions, it’ll stand up well anywhere.”
Intuity is a Strobilurin fungicide from Sumitomo that provides excellent control of blossom blight and brown rot in stone fruit. Intuity is a Group 11 fungicide, its active ingredient is Mandestrobin, a unique Strobilurn commercially developed by Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. Intuity has a non-scheduled SC formulation which makes it easier to use and handle. It also boasts a patented latex formulation specifically developed to aid with rainfastness.
“Nowadays with the weather forecasting, we know beforehand when the rain is coming so we can plan these things,” says Nigel, allowing for the application of reliable rainfast products such as Intuity.