4/2/19 - ADAMA has announced a label extension on Merpan (captan), which could be a major step towards helping protect New Zealand’s apple exports, especially to China, a growing export apple market for New Zealand.
Captan, a proven multi-site fungicide with a 30 year history in this country, now covers European canker and, importantly, has had its PHI (Preharvest interval) decreased from 14 days to just three days.
The latter is particularly good news for bull’s eye rot prevention.
Many new, high value, export varieties in New Zealand, including Pacific Queen, Pink Lady and Ambrosia, are very susceptible to bull’s eye rot.
Fruit becomes more susceptible to bull’s eye rot infection late season, with rots expressed during storage. This poses challenges in orchards as apples are successively picked for several weeks, at approximately weekly intervals.
Reduced PHI for more effective treatment of Bull's eye rot
Until now, a 14 day PHI prevented applications being made between successive picks, leaving ripening fruit unprotected against bull’s eye rot after 14 days before the first pick. This increased the risk of bull’s eye rot detection in the sensitive Chinese market.
With its own significant apple industry, China has stringent import requirements, particularly around bull’s eye rot as the disease is not currently present in that country. An application of Merpan within the last 20 +/-5 days before harvest is a requirement for apples imported from NZ.
However, this is not currently possible for successively picked fruit with a 14 day PHI.
Now, with having a reduced PHI of three days for Merpan, growers will be able to treat fruit more effectively for this phytosanitary disease and consequently reduce risk to trade in China.