No doubt “Covid 19” conjures up a lot of thoughts and feelings for everyone as we now enter Day 1 of formal lockdown. The emotion of not seeing family for who knows how long; not being able to give that bunch of flowers on Mothering Sunday or not celebrating your birthday or wedding being just some. The challenges we face could be home schooling your children while trying to work from home, we’ve all seen the videos, we know how this is going to go… Day 1 and Joe Wicks seems to have entertained 800,000 subscribers, let alone the multiple children watching - it could be over 2 million, I wonder how many this will be on day 18? We know our supermarket supply chains can cope if we just let them. While it’s marginally funny that hashtags such as #buyflowersnottoiletroll are a thing now, there is a serious underlying message for everyone. First a thought to our Dutch growers. For the past week they have only been allowed to deliver 30% of their usual daily volume. What’s happening to the rest of their…

Good coverage. It’s essential. Want to get the most out of your applications? The place to start is good coverage and droplet size. It’s important for us, as the crop protection manufacturer, that users of our products to get the most out of them. If we’re not the expert in our own products, how can we expect anyone else to be? As we’ve talked about before, the Art of Application is a fine one.This is why we run application trials in various countries. Funnily enough, caluna’s in Germany aren’t the same as clematis in the UK. So in the past six months we’ve run application trials in the UK, Germany, Italy and of course The Netherlands. The reason for this extensive and growing network of trials is so we can back ourselves, to give you, the users, solid and balanced advice on applications of our products.Droplets – the simple part of the storyThe concept of droplet size is often communicated in a simplified way such as the below chart to explain the concept of finer droplets = better coverage ……

It might sound like a national tourist authority website but www-wales is actually the slogan we use at Syngenta as a reminder of the best order in which to add ingredients to the knapsack or sprayer tank – starting with the products that are the most difficult to disperse and dissolve. Adjuvants are usually added last, though those designed for use as compatibility aids should go in just before any wettable powders.Ensure each product is thoroughly mixed, dispersed or dissolved before adding the next.Here’s how it goes:W: Water goes into the tank first, before any product; fill to around half the tank and start agitationW: the first products to add are those formulated as a Water-soluble bag (WSB), if you’re using any, and allow each to disperse fullyIf an adjuvant is being used as a compatibility aid, it goes in here, otherwise at the endW: next add any Wettable powders (WP)W: then any Water-dispersible granules (WG)A: Agitation should be maintained; allow these harder-to-mix ingredients to disperse evenly…

We’re currently in the process of finalising plans for the launch of our new ornamentals adjuvant. I’ll be telling you more about it soon but it’s also got me thinking about some of the ways of ensuring compatibility when products are mixed in your spray tank – whether you use a knapsack, trolley sprayer or tractor.We’ve already looked in a previous blog at the benefits of adding an adjuvant when you spray. In addition, you may sometimes consider using a combination of crop protection products or a liquid fertiliser or plant biostimulant.If you are considering mixing crop protection products, perhaps to save time and labour costs, remember that the different pests or diseases you may want to control may be much more effectively targeted separately, at different locations on the crop, or at slightly different timings. Mixing products, rather than applying separately, might also compromise your ability to alternate applications as part of your resistance management strategy.Don’t forget, that the more products…

This week I’ve been thinking about pests and their future. We all know that pest are a big part of our lives and the ever shrinking “chemical toolbox” isn’t helping matters. We get asked “why haven’t we got a new insecticide ready yet?” Believe me when I say, we, and the rest of the industry, are trying. Corteva are there with their Isoclast chemistry but this can’t be a one stop shop answer to our prayers.The emptying toolboxWith the remaining chemistry we have at our disposal, the risk of building resistance is becoming ever closer to reality. Those of you familiar with blackgrass in arable crops will know all too well that in places, it’s resistant to nothing by glyphosate and we all know the direction that is going in. Atlantis is a great product and has done wonders for crops all over the world, but over-use has seen a steady build-up of resistance and it’s not just herbicides.Another arable casualty is oilseed rape. In areas around our office in Cambridge, pollen beetle has built up resistance to…

This has been a year that kept on giving … As we reflected towards the end of last year, it gave us was the time to consider how we communicate with our horticulture customers, were we doing it right, wrong, were we missing a trick? Something that was very clear was that “everyone” had a podcast, or was wanting or podcast, or had more than one. And this made us think. Maybe a podcast is another string to our communication bow that allows us to meet more of our customers needs. Enter….THE POTCAST!As we’re in horticulture and this is us, we couldn’t just call it “the Syngenta Professional Horticulture Podcast” because a) it’s a bit of a mouthful and b) horticulture = pots… so it had to be PotCast. While there were initial thoughts that “pot” has other meanings but this is a clean space, people just think about their professional plants here. OK I’ll stop but you get the idea.But, not only is this a podcast where you will hear from the Syngenta team, our distribution partners and specialists from the industry,…

Questions. We’re surrounded by them on a daily basis. “Questioning” is seen as a positive thing, being “inquisitive” is a sign you’re “curious”. So this week I’m going to be asking the questions: Are biological crop protection products the golden goose we’ve been looking for?We, along with our competitors are continuously trying to bring products to market that have been designed to meet customer demands and over the past few years, we have seen more demand to deliver biological solutions as well. But something we actually want to know is, “why?” We are asked so often “when are you bringing a biological solution to market” and it’s not through lack of trying – they’re coming, but another question is, are you - the grower - willing to accept biological solutions with the Achilles Heel of less efficacy in peak stress periods? Is the customer willing to accept aphid damage, for example?Biostimulants all year round?I find the challenges of ornamental plant production fascinating. I know that throughout the…

Sat at my computer a year ago thinking about what 2019 had delivered for us and looking to 2020, I, and no one else (not even Mystic Meg) could have predicted what we have lived through in the past 10 months.Looking to 2021, I wonder what we have in store? In truth, these are always tricky things to write, you always end up looking daft if you predict things wildly wrong, but, I want to look back on 2020 and what its changed for the positive.We knew Covid-19 would impact us in many ways, but it does feel like everything is “earlier”. Whether that was buying a pumpkin at the local patch (THE autumn Instagram trend) or the purchase of the Christmas tree two weeks early (me) and even putting them up at the start of lockdown 2.0 in November (not me), we just want to get cracking, no time to be wasted, just do what you want, when you want, to be happy.For me, purchasing a Christmas tree is something I bounce about for weeks and in 2020, when I drove past the garden centre to see a lorry full of trees, I knew I…

Two of the main pests threatening protected crops can be controlled with a new insecticide from Syngenta Ornamentals.Mainspring was launched today at Syngenta’s Jealott’s Hill research site, adding a vital new tool to a grower’s armoury.The new broad-spectrum insecticide has proven effective against both caterpillars and thrips which are both capable of inflicting a huge amount of damage to crops.Mainspring’s active ingredient, cyantraniliprole, has a mode of action that is unique among plant protection products for ornamentals and is designed to work quickly and thoroughly.“As well as offering rapid control of crop damage and a welcome wide spectrum of activity, the unique mode of action is particularly useful when it comes to resistance management,” says Syngenta Ornamentals technical manager Sean Loakes.The beet army worm and golden twin-spot moth both have the capacity to damage plants in greenhouses to the point that they’re unmarketable.“Caterpillars are capable of feeding and increasing their…

Basel, Switzerland, January 26, 2022Syngenta Crop Protection AG has acquired two next generation bioinsecticides, NemaTrident^® and UniSpore^®, from leading biocontrol technology developer, Bionema Limited.NemaTrident^® and UniSpore^® will provide customers with additional and complementary technologies to effectively and sustainably manage insect pests and resistance.NemaTrident^® and UniSpore^® will be the first fully owned biocontrols in the Syngenta Professional Solutions portfolio. Syngenta Crop Protection has acquired two next generation bioinsecticides, NemaTrident^® and UniSpore^®, to combat increasing resistance and a wide range of insects and pests across horticulture and ornamentals, turf amenity and forestry, giving customers even greater choice.Syngenta Crop Protection is acquiring the patents and trademarks for both NemaTrident^® and UniSpore^®, and the UniSpore^® registration dossier, and will have full global development and commercialization rights for the assets. This is an important step in…