Crop Health

Spring peas & beans Spring sown crops should be checked for pea and bean weevil damage. The damage is very distinctive – notches eaten out of the sides of leaves.…

Protecting seed crops from the various aphid-borne potato viruses is essential to maintain the quality of Scottish seed potatoes, particularly in light of the shrinking availability of aphicides for effective…

It’s very difficult at this stage of the season to accurately predict how bad overall 2019 will be for blight. Will it be similar to 2018 or will there be…

Under dry conditions at crop emergence flea beetles will potentially be damaging the crop up to the 4 leaf stage. Under damper conditions slugs will be the issue. Bear in…

With most crops now at early flowering the risk from pollen beetle is over, as they can access the pollen they crave. With most crops now at early flowering, cabbage…

Spring barley Check or aphids on emerging shoots as they could be walking onto the crop from volunteers and grasses, and some aphids have already been flying around this spring.…

Winter barley Awns are peeping in the most advanced crops, with flag leaf peeping in a wider proportion. The dry weather has helped reduce the pressure from rhynchosporium so, where…

Most weed control is based around conventional chemistry of a basic residual + contact combination.  Products can be mixed and rates matched according to the weed spectrum. Timing is everything…

Most winter cereal crops are now past the growth stage where annual meadow-grass can be adequately controlled. However, there are still opportunities to tidy up broad-leaved weeds such as cleavers,…