Intra Hydrocare is suitable to prevent mildew infections in hydroponic lettuce production. The strong fungicide effect of Hydrocare is shown is several laboratory studies but also proves to be very efficient in practice with hydroponic lettuce production.
Severe mildew infections can cause production losses up to 60%, especially in warmer periods when the climate for mildew growth is more favourable. Practical trials have shown that with Intra Hydrocare these production losses can be minimised to less than 5%.
How?
Key to prevent a serious outbreak is preventive treatment in the nutritive water. With this methodology the lettuce will not get infected from the beginning of the crop until harvest. It is important to start with Intra Hydrocare directly at the start of the production cycle. This because sometimes the young plants are already infected with mildew at the nursery.
The needed Intra Hydrocare concentration is 20 – 50 ppm in the nutrition water. This continuous dosage prevents mildew development and prevents biofilm formation in the main tank and irrigation pipes. It also prevents development of fusarium and helps oxygenation of the roots.
Practical trials were also carried out to investigate the curative effect of Intra Hydrocare on mildew. Mildew infected lettuce was separated to a small 18 square meters testing greenhouse. The infected lettuce was treated with Hydrocare by spray treatment. This application was done in the early morning and twice per week. In order to kill the mildew and stop the spread of the fungus to healthy lettuce, the Hydrocare solution needs to make contact with the mildew on the leafs. This treatment with Hydrocare stops the progression of mildew and prevents that healthy lettuce will get infected. Still, preventive treatment is the preferred route because curative treatment can leave damaged leafs when Hydrocare has killed the fungus as shown in below images (treatment of crops is possible depending on the legislation per country).
The trials were performed by Nutriaqua Hydroponic Cultures Lda. Nutriaqua is a Portuguese lettuce producer using NFT hydroponic technique. They use a closed circuit irrigation system where all the nutritive solution which is not used by the plants returns to the main reservoir.
Intra Hydrocare
Intra Hydrocare is a registered biocide in product classes PT02, PT03, PT04 and PT05. The active ingredients of Intra Hydrocare are hydrogen peroxide and chelated silver. This combination creates a very strong combined cleaner and disinfectant, capable of removing biofilm and eliminating pathogens at the same time. Besides that, the advised dosages of Intra Hydrocare are friendly for the user, crop and equipment.
For more information
Intracare
Harm Vogels
T: +31 (0)413354105