New combinations gives OSR a fighting chance

By UPL

A new biological seed treatment for oilseed rape is available from UPL this autumn.

ARYSEED is an amino acid seed treatment to be used alongside SYLAS-ST.

Recently, grain marketing and arable inputs cooperative Openfield partnered with The University of Nottinghams Dr. Steven Rossall to screen a range of amino acid options. Openfields head of seeds, Lee Bennett tasked the researchers to investigate if establishment of OSR could be optimised further by pairing seaweed based SYLAS-ST with a second mode of action.

UPLs new amino acid seed treatment, ARYSEED, gave the largest synergistic benefits in this work.

Lee Bennett commented The results were astonishing, with SYLAS-ST and ARYSEED together outperforming anything else, especially in the low-temperature germination trials. It was the same in the drought-tolerance test the pots from the combination treatment just kept going and going until we decided to call time on the trial.

UPL Technical Lead for Seed Treatments, Rob Adamson, said: SYLAS-ST gives marked improvements in germination speed whilst improving root biomass and water management in the establishing rape plant. The addition of ARYSEED delivers clear additional benefits in supporting biomass production.

Sylas-ST and ARYSEED are the starting point for UPLs oilseed rape establishment programme. Foliar biostimulants such as ARYAMIN-C can be used as post emergence follow up to further support crop growth.

UPL recommend SYLAS-ST + ARYSEED as a seed treatment, followed by 1l/ha ARYAMIN-C as a foliar spray at 2 leaf, and again at the start of spring to promote growth at the most critical times for the rape crop. Rob adds In 2019 trials UPL saw ARYAMIN-C gave significant improvements in the crops ability to grow away from flea beetle feeding, with a growth rate more rapid than the feeding rate, resulting in yield improvements. Although biostimulants are not the answer to cabbage stem flea beetle, they can help to mitigate the problem.

SYLAS-ST is available from a range of suppliers this autumn, whilst the SYLAS-ST + ARYSEED offering is available exclusively from Openfield.

For more blogs and news, see the CropTec blog here