BioPulseThe pulse of Biological Agriculture

Issue 6 | July 2014

The driving force behind Sustainable Agriculture

Fighting the Cold...As snow has fallen in many regions of our country recently it seems an appropriate time to take a look at AgriSil K50 and it’s benefits in fighting cold stress.

Tel. 086 104 5261 www.madumbi.co.za support@madumbi.co.za

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MADUMBI HITS THE ROAD NOVEL STIMULANTS SHARING KNOWLEDGEThe Madumbi team recently embarked on our inaugural round of roadshows touring agents in the South and North of the country. We report back.

Madumbi’s V12 range is made unique by the inclusion of some novel biostimulants. Brendon sheds a little more light on the role they play in our formulations.

False Codling Moth is rearing its head across our borders. Madumbi was proud to host international guests from Israel to share knowledge on FCM control methods.

Page 1 BioPulse July 2014

The month of June was a very short one for the Madumbi team. Usually this quiet month in the agricultural calendar goes by with very little notice, however, this year was a little different. 2014 saw the first of what we hope will become a popular annual event in the Madumbi calendar, our inaugural Madumbi Roadshow. The full sales and marketing team hit the road at the beginning of June. Travelling first to our Southern distributors, Terason and Viking where we spent a week traversing a very cold Cape province from Grabouw in the South to Vredendal in the North. From there we travelled North to visit our Laeveld agents in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Over the two weeks we had the opportunity to meet with many of our agents both old and new as well as their customers. Not only did we share our knowledge but also took the chance to listen to their experiences and the challenges they are currently facing in the field.

While it was a challenging two weeks away from home we returned with a better understanding of our customers and their needs and feel extremely encouraged by the growing interest in biological solutions. Difficulties faced due to stricter MRL legislation and resistance issues were items of challenge on everyone’s list. Madumbi is excited for the future, our aim is to work with our customers to develop biologically integrated programs, and the current climate is ripe for solution providers to meet these challenges. Not only do we have the opportunity to broaden the choices growers have when it comes to viable biological pest and disease control options,we can also assist in managing these problems in the long term. By careful management of pest and disease populations and improving plant vitality these challenges can be overcome. In July we will visit our local KZN agents and in August travel into the interior to meet our agents in the Free State. Should you be interested in attending one of our information days in these areas please contact us.

ANDRE FOXMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

CEO

andre@madumbi.co.za

Madumbi hits the road...

Above from left: Sias presenting at a meeting of agents and growers in Vredendal. Brendon gets a closer look at onions grown on the Madumbi program in Brits, an isolated area affected by Witbol Vrot. Brendon will be looking at ways to further improve the program for next season. The team in cabbage fields in Brits where crops are being decimated by an unknown ‘Pathogen X’. Madumbi will be working with growers in the hope of finding a solution to this problem.

V12

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Page 3 Novel BioStimulants

It is generally accepted that five classes of plant growth hormones exist. These are:1. Abscisic Acid2. Auxins3. Cytokinins4. Ethylene5. Gibberellins

In addition to this, a number of other compounds have been identified in recent years which also have the ability to regulate plant growth. Triacontanol and Brassinosteroids are two such compounds which are gaining increasing attention.

Triacontanol:Triacontanol is a primary alcohol typically found in the epicuticular waxes of a wide range of plant species with some of the highest concentrations found in the leaf waxes of Lucerne and Sugarcane. Since it’s first discovery in 1977, many researchers have reported on the positive roles of Triacontanol in terms of it’s ability to enhance growth, yield, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, uptake of water and nutrients and enzyme activities. Of all the above, the role of Triacontanol in enhancing photosynthesis has attracted the most attention. In our own trials, Madumbi has been able to demonstrate this positive effect with the use of chlorophyll meters. Given the effects on photosynthesis and growth, Triacontanol has always been seen by Madumbi as an ideal ingredient for any foliar formulation targeting the vegetative phase of plant growth, resulting in it’s inclusion in both V12 Shoot and V12 Multi.

Novel BioStimulants - Triacontanol and Brassinosteroids

BRENDON NEUMANNMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

Category Manager - BioFertilisers and Plant Vitality

brendon@madumbi.co.za

Above: Results from recent lettuce trials with V12 products. V12 Multi and V12 Shoot show the positive effect addition of Triacontanol can have on chlorophyll. This increase in chlorophyll translates to improved photosynthesis which drives the crop’s production capacity, which ultimately leads to an improvement in sucrose content and yield also depicted here.

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V12 Lettuce Trial Effect on Chlorophyll, Brix and Yield

Mean weight 20 heads (kg) Sucrose content (Harvest)

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Page 4 Novel BioStimulants

Brassinosteroids:Some researchers have gone as far as listing the brassinosteroids as the sixth class of plant growth hormones. These natural products are found in almost all plants, with the highest concentrations being found in the reproductive structures such as seeds and pollen cells. The first brassinosteroid to be discovered was brassinolide which was isolated from pollen cells of Brassica napus (oilseed rape) in 1970. Since then, research has demonstrated the roles of brassinosteroids in terms of:

• Stimulation of both cell elongation and division resulting in general growth promotion.• Influencing hormonal balance of plants resulting in an increase in the success rate of fertilization,

leading to increased fruit/grain formation.• Regulation of genes involved in resistance responses to unfavourable conditions, stress and

disease.• Enhancement of fruit quality parameters such as Brix, fruit firmness, colour etc.

In simple terms, brassinosteroid compounds have the ability to promote growth, improve flower and fruit set, fruit size and quality parameters (fruit firmness, Brix, colour etc.) while also stimulating resistance to pathogens and environmental stresses. As such, Madumbi saw V12 Fruit as the ideal fit for the inclusion of brassinolide as an active component. The product is applied at flowering and during fruit development in order to get the most out of the above benefits.

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V12 Pepper TrialEffect on fruit number and mass

No. of fruit / plant Mean total fruit yield (g/plant)

Above: Results from another V12 trial, this time on peppers. Here the effect of the addition of Brassinolide can be seen in the increase in fruit number and total fruit mass over the untreated control and solo V12 Shoot application. Combining these products with the nutritional support of products like V12 Initiate, V12 Multi and V12 Micro gives the crop all the tools it needs to achieve optimum potential. This is evident in the results of the full program which showed a dramatic 50% improvement in fruit number and total mass over the untreated control.

Page 5 Israeli visit to SA

Israel visits South Africa to learn about FCM control

In May Madumbi Sustainable Agriculture had the pleasure of hosting, on behalf of our Swiss partners Andermatt Biocontrol, a high level delegation from Israeli company Luxembourg Industries. It has recently been confirmed that False Codling Moth (Thaumatotibia (Cryptophlebia) leucotreta) has been identified in certain crops within Israel, the purpose of this visit being to learn from South African experiences in dealing with this pest. The group was therefore very eager to share Madumbi’s experience and understanding on how we combine our virus products within Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programs. We spent time in both the Western Cape and Eastern Cape visiting the various stakeholders working in the Apple and Citrus value chains.

The focus of the three days was how Madumbi Sustainable Agriculture positions both Cryptex and Madex in both the Citrus and Apple programs respectively. It was important to highlight the reason why growers use virus as well as the advantages of using high quality formulations. It is clear that virus offers a big advantage when it comes to population control and growers have managed to reduce the population of the major pest to below the economic threshold by using a virus product within an IPM approach. Once growers have reduced the population to manageable levels, the growers have then been able to adapt the IPM programs to reduce input costs and also free up chemicals for controlling other pests whilst still keeping below the minimum residue requirements set by importing countries. In general we see less and less new chemistry coming into the market and it is therefore crucial that growers protect what chemistry they have, and once again virus products offer a safe and effective solution in this regard. The other big advantage of virus products is that you can mix the virus within a tank mix of other chemical and nutrition products. This allows the grower to be flexible with his timing and reduces the cost associated with spraying single products.

The few days spent with the Israeli group created a good opportunity for knowledge exchange and learning. They were very confident on their return to Israel that they would be adding virus products to IPM programs currently running on the various crops affected by FCM.

CLINT LAWSONMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

Marketing Manager

clint@madumbi.co.za

Above from left: Dave Gerber taking time to share his experiences controlling FCM in the Eastern Cape. The full team from Luxembourg Industries with Reto Flueckiger and Philip Kessler, from Andermatt Biocontrol, on top of a cold and cloudy Table Mountain. No visit to SA is complete without a visit to the bush, Nissim Itach from Israel taking some time out with Andre.

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MEGAN TYLERMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

Category Management Support

megan@madumbi.co.za

Fighting the Cold with Agrisil K50

Page 7 Fighting the cold with AgriSil K50

We have featured AgriSil K50 previously in BioPulse (May 2013) highlighting its benefits for aiding plants in stress tolerance and recovery, including that related to disease and pest pressure and environmental pressures such as extreme temperatures and drought stress. In this issue, I would like to focus attention on the benefits of Silica supplementation when related to cold stress.

Being located in a subtropical region, South Africa has the benefit of having a suitable climate for the production of many crops that originally developed in the tropics. Unfortunately as a result these crops are less tolerant to extreme temperature fluctuations, particularly the cold temperatures we experience during our winter months where night time temperatures can frequently fall below 5oC. One crop that is particularly sensitive to cold stress is Bananas, commonly grown in our coastal and northern regions. As well as its susceptibility to the cold, Bananas are also vulnerable to disease caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum commonly known as Fusarium wilt. Bananas often succumb to the disease when a very cold winter is followed by a very hot summer. The stress caused by the severe cold leaves the crop vulnerable to the disease when temperatures increase and disease pressure follows.

Prof. Mark Laing at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal studied the effects of silicon supplementation on cold temperature stress and tolerance to Fuserium wilt. The tests were carried out by placing young banana plants in a refrigerated environment (0oC and 4oC) for periods ranging from 1 to 8 days. Plants were treated weekly with silica for 6 weeks prior to cooling. Half were also inoculated with F. oxysporum one month prior to cooling. After the cooling period, plants were placed in a warm environment (26oC) for one week before results were collected. It was found that the banana plants treated with Silica tolerated the 4oC climate change far better than those untreated and were also able to tolerate disease pressures where untreated plants succumbed to Fuserium wilt. Unfortunately the Silica treatment showed no benefit at 0oC indicating that there is a limit to the ability of Silica to prevent damage in more extreme cases.

The mechanisms by which Silica offers such benefits are in strengthening the plant. Firstly through the physical strengthening of the plant cell walls and the vascular system and secondly by improving the rates of production of enzymes and antioxidants involved in the plant’s stress response. It is these combined effects that result in the improved stress and disease tolerance in plants treated with Silica that has been well documented in scientific literature on a range of crop types and stress situations. Detailed instructions for the use of AgriSil K50 as a Silica supplement are provided here. Should you have any questions or wish to try the product please contact us.

Above from left: Bananas exposed to 4oC for 4 days, untreated left vs. treated right. First leaf of bananas exposed to 4oC for 8 days, untreated left vs. treated right. Effect of Silica treatments on disease index of bananas inoculated with F. oxysprum and stored at 4oC.

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Untreated Si Treated (1000 ppm) Si Treated (2000 ppm)

Application Instructions

Marketed and Distributed by: Madumbi Sustainable Agriculture (Pty) LtdPostnet Suite 148, Private Bag X9118Pietermaritzburg 3200 Tel. +27 (0) 86 104 5261support@madumbi.co.zawww.madumbi.co.za

The driving force behind Sustainable Agriculture

Manufactured by:

A fully soluble, liquid formulation Potassium Silicate (K 33 g/kg; Si 96 g/kg) for use as a foliar or soil applied Silica supplement to improve general plant health and stress and disease tolerance.

WARNINGS• High alkalinity will irritate skin and eyes. Avoid all contact with skin and

eyes and take necessary precautions when using the product. • Keep out of reach of children, uninformed persons and animals.• High alkalinity can cause compatibility problems with other chemicals,

always conduct a jar test before mixing with chemical products or contact you distributor for queries.

PRECAUTIONS• Avoid direct contact with eyes. In case of accidental contact immediately

flush eyes with clean water and seek medical advice. • Avoid contact with skin, wash hands with soap after application and

before consuming food, drinking or smoking. In case of accidental contact wash area thoroughly with water.

• Do not inhale spray mist.• Do not eat, drink or smoke whilst mixing or applying.• Prevent contamination of food, foodstuffs, drinking water and eating

utensils.• Clean applicator before and after use. • Rinse empty container three times with a volume of water equal to a

minimum of 10% of that of the container. Add the rinsing water to the contents of the spray or mixing tank. Destroy the container, and do not use empty container for any other purpose.

Disclaimer: Although this product has been tested under a variety of conditions, the supplier does not warrant that it will be efficacious under all conditions. Because the active agent is a living organism, its action may be affected by storage, handling, climatic or soil conditions. This naturally occurring organism should not cause damage to crops, vegetation, or the environment, nor harm to man and animals. However, in the unlikely event of this happening, the supplier does not accept responsibility for any damage that may occur.

DIRECTIONS FOR USESTORAGE• AgriSil K50 should be stored in the original container away from food, feed stuffs and potentially reactive materials i.e. other fertilisers.• At low temperatures (<10oC) AgriSil K50 may form a gel that is difficult to mix. This is due to its very high concentration of Potassium Silicate. Once the

product is warmed the gel should liquify. In winter store in the warmest possible environment. When very cold temperatures are expected diluting the AgriSil K50 concentrate by 5% will prevent gel formation in most cases.

COMPATIBILITY • Potassium Silicate is highly Alkali (pH>11) and as such can cause compatibility problems related to this high alkalinity. • Buffering agents - Tenderbuff has been confirmed to be compatible with AgriSil K50. Aqua Rite 5 is not compatible.• Silica salts are highly reactive. Avoid mixing with products containing salts of Magnesium, Calcium (Calcium Nitrate) Zinc and Aluminium. • Always conduct a jar test before mixing product or consult your distributor. • Effects are reduced when product is diluted, premix with water before adding to a tank mix and always add water/AgriSil K50 premix last. MIXING INSTRUCTIONS• Shake container well before use.• Fill spray tank with half the required water volume and start agitator mechanism. Ensure adequate agitation is maintained during mixing and application. • Add any other products to be tank mixed first. • Make up a dilute premix by adding AgriSil K50 to a smaller volume of water. i.e. 1L AgriSil K50 into 4L water to make 5L premix solution. • Add the AgriSil K50 premix to the tank. • Complete filling of the spray tank. • Apply as a full cover film spray or as a soil drench as applicable. Conventional application equipment may be used. IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER• Foliar applications are more effective when applied in early morning or late evening and not during the heat of the day. • AgriSil K50 is a salt product and any salt may cause leaf burn if it dries too quickly on the leaf surface. Although reports of Phytotoxicity are rare evening

applications will help to reduce the possibility of leaf burn. AgriSil K50 on its own, when applied at the correct dosage will not cause burn, however if applied in the incorrect conditions it can become a contributing factor and caution must be taken.

• Mixed product must be applied as soon as possible.• AgriSil K50 has an SG of 1.25 and is sold on weight not volume. Keep this in mind when ordering your product.

Suggested Application Rates and Frequency:

AgriSil K50

Crop Rate Frequency and methodTree Crops 400ml (500g)/100L Apply 5L of solution per tree as root drench. One application every two months.

Nurseries & Hydroponics 40ml (50g) / 100L Apply weekly.

Veg & strawberries 1L (1.25kg) / Ha Apply every 7-10 days. First application 7 days after emergence or transplant. Foliar spray.

Carrots, peppers & tomatoes 2L (2.5kg) / Ha Apply every 7-10 days. First application 7 days after emergence or transplant. Foliar spray.

Grapes 1L (1.25kg) / Ha Apply at the beginning of the vegetative stage. Repeat weekly. Foliar spray.

Wheat 0.5L (625g) / Ha First application at 25-30 days, repeating at flag leaf and awns stage. Foliar spray.

Maize & Sorghum 0.5L (625g) / Ha First application at 4th leaf stage, repeating at the 8th leaf stage. Foliar spray.

Beans & Soybeans 0.5L (625g) / Ha First application between 15 & 25 days. Repeat upon flowering. Foliar spray.

Potatoes 2L (2.5kg) / Ha Apply weekly. Foliar spray.

Cane 1.5L / Ha First application at 40-45 days, repeating 30 days later. Foliar spray.

Until next time from the Madumbi team, Happy Farming!

The driving force behind Sustainable AgricultureTel. 086 104 5261 www.madumbi.co.za support@madumbi.co.za