Over the years, we have seen significant results for pulse growers using our ACF-SR product to promote healthier plants and increasing overall yield without heavy reliance on synthetic fungicides.
In 2022, we wanted to see the response of our new SRP technology on chickpeas and lentils compared to conventional fungicide on a farm in southern Saskatchewan.
Here’s what we found:
From: Doug Logan
Logan Farms, Gull Lake, Saskatchewan
“Our land was broken into two parts, which you will see from the below images.
We had a major rain event on July 3 of about 3 inches. This was the beginning of a disease outbreak on our chickpeas and the major contributor to aphanomyces in our lentils.
We knew on July 3 we had disease in our chickpeas, so we tried SRP on July 7. The Scouting maps below NDVI satellite maps and portray an accurate reflection of crop health.
Yield analysis for each trial showed no yield advantage either through SRP or conventional use. The SRP was a significantly lower cost to use compared to conventional fungicide, therefore higher return on investment.
We did see significantly better plant growth in the SRP controlled area at harvest. Plants were much taller and thicker.
Our farm will only be using SRP instead of fungicides from now on.
My recommendation is to use SRP as a preemptive to any disease starting in chickpeas. Our independent observations were that the SRP stopped the disease from spreading but didn’t cure the affected plants. 2 separate agrologist confirmed this."
Lentil trials:
"Our area is heavily infested with aphanomyces. It’s a major problem in our area. “Gaylord dam” received no fungicides at all this year and “raymonds home” 1/2 received SRP and also ACF-SR earlier on.
The NDVI maps below show no extra loss from aphanomyces on “raymond home” 1/2 after our major rain event, which was impressive because we know that’s how it spreads. “Gaylord dam” had significant loss from same rain event. Yield on raymond’s home half was 27 bpa with 3.5% dockage. Yield was 12 bpa on gaylords dam with 25% dockage.
It was clear to see that more disease in the affected fields contributed to late weed growth.
Our observation was the SRP treated lentils had the aphanomyces halted in its tracks and never spread after that.
My recommendation is to use SRP at the first hint of aphanomyces. You can also tell by the NDVI maps that the low biomass got worse for a bit after we sprayed but then sharply improved in the later maps. This is because it took the plants some time to recover and feel the effects of spraying SRP.
The low biomass in the lentils we didn’t spray continued to get worse over time with no signs of recovery."
As you can see from the image above, the top section with the conventional fungicide had much less biomass than the SRP section.
For more on how SRP can be leveraged on pulse crops, reach out to a rep or give us a call at 403.752.0278.