By Taylor Aguilera, Regional Manager Northern California, Certis Biologicals
Right now, I believe that agriculture is facing one of its biggest challenges ever and California specialty crop growers are at the epicenter of both the struggles and the solutions for it.
For generations, growers relied upon the same solutions to help fight the toughest diseases and pests, until those pests and diseases adapted and started developing resistance. When that happened, growers were left with fewer choices for effective crop protection.
But remember when I said that our growers are at the heart of the solution?
For the past several years, growers like you have been innovating and collaborating with each other and crop protection experts to fight resistance head on. And what has sprung from that fight has many growers using an integrated pest management IPM program for effective control.
At Certis Biologicals, we know that the bio-based solutions found in our portfolio are the key to an effective IPM program. Biologicals are easy to integrate into IPM because they can rotate well with other bio-based products and conventional chemistries. Rotation is the key to IPM so the disease and pests you are fighting never have the chance to develop resistance.
Even more, you can tank-mix and partner biologicals with most other products to get a higher return on your application investment. For instance, our neem oil product, Trilogy®, works great when mixed with a conventional fungicide, even yielding enhanced mite and insect management as an added benefit.
Double Nickel® has multiple modes of action, which works to break the cycle of resistance and delivers efficacy when you need it most. And LifeGard® WG, the first foliar-applied biological plant activator on the market, unlocks your plants’ own ability to fight off diseases like blights and mildews using a naturally-occurring bacterium that triggers an induced resistance response. Even more powerful is LifeGard’s ability to be tank-mixed and rotated with conventional chemistries to further ward off resistance.
They say that variety is the spice of life, but it’s also how you achieve efficacy through a successful IPM program. Fortunately for those who use bio-based products from Certis Biologicals, the variety of solutions found in our portfolio can offer the protection you need while integrating with other biologicals and conventional chemistries to maximize your efforts.
If you’d like to talk with me or someone from the Certis-California team about how biologicals can work in your IPM, reach out at asktheexpert@certisbio.com. You can also visit our website to learn more about the products we have that will work great in your resistance toolbox for the upcoming growing season.
This series is part of a partnership with Tree Nut Farm Press. You can read the original here.
