“We were seeing Powdery on the leaves or foliage, and even on the fruit. After spraying Verpixo, the Powdery dried up which was really good. To see something work like that is rare.”
He said melons were a relatively short season crop, so Verpixo was applied early to give the crop the best possible start. Other chemistries were then rotated through the season.
Verpixo is designed as a protectant fungicide and should be applied prior to disease infection or when conditions favour disease development.
It was able to stop disease development in the melons on the Canzirri farm and has now become an integral part of the program.
Mr Canzirri said they would also look to use Verpixo to control sclerotinia in their iceberg and cos lettuce crops.
“Sclerotinia in lettuce is very hard to control,” he said. “It’s a short cycle crop and you only have a few weeks. I haven’t done a lot with Verpixo in the leaf lines, but I’ll be looking forward to doing that in the winter.