BIOFUNGICIDE
Contains 5% w/v chitosan hydrochloride. Soluble concentrate
Use within two months of opening the container. If you need to apply multiple times throughout a year please purchase multiple items of smaller pack sizes.
Eutrema’s Chitosan; the UK’s favourite biofungicide!
Chitosan is a natural carbohydrate polymer. As well as being used as a biostimulant, it can also be used as an organic biofungicide. This is because chitosan is listed as a ‘Basic Substance’ by the EU (regulations 563/2014) .
Chitosan can be used by both conventional and organic farmers.
Chitosan is a potent elicitor of plant defence mechanisms. Plants detect Chitosan as ‘non-self’ and a signal that a pest or pathogen is attacking them. The crop plant itself defends against the pathogen, rather than direct biocidal activity, which is how conventional fungicides work. Because of this mode of action, chitosan is best used preventatively rather than curatively.
When diluted and sprayed onto the foliage, chitosan dries to form a ‘cap’ over fungal lesions (see above picture on lupin leaves). This bio-plastic cap physically limits the pathogen’s ability to propagate through the crop by preventing the spores floating away in the air.
Application protocols
Cereals and field vegetables; 2-8 litres / ha in 200-400 litres of water.
Can be applied at fortnightly intervals, 4-8 times during the growing season, from germination to harvest. PHI = 0 days.
For more details on how to use on chitosan to cereal crops download our FUNGICIDE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN
UNLIKE CONVENTIONAL FUNGICIDES, CHITOSAN CAN BE LEGALLY USED ON EVERY FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CROP. This means that you can use chitosan as a biofungicides in crops where there are no/few registered fungicides, such as, chicory, wasabi, medlar, watercress, samphire etc.
Fruits; 2-16 litres / ha in 200-400 litres of water. Can be applied at fortnightly intervals, 4-8 times during the growing season, from germination/bud break until harvest.
Pre-harvest Index (PHI) = 0 days! This means you can apply chitosan biofungicide right up to the day of harvest, if you so wish. This is not true of any other fungicide. This offers growers massive flexibility and additional options when fungal diseases are out of control.
Chitosan can also be applied as a dip or seed coat before sowing potatoes, sugar beet, or cereals.
Do not tank mix. Chitosan is a natural cationic flocculant, and as such, will react with most other fertilisers, biostimulants, and pesticides.
My default position is always scepticism, but when I trialled the chitosan against grey mould I was honestly FLABBERGASTED! The lesion dried up and the disease stopped spreading.
Anthony Rowland, Tree Tops, Worcestershire
Chitosan was a leap of faith after seeing work done in abroad we decided to give this a go, in what has been a very challenging year in terms of plant disease where we choose to commit to a limited fungicide program based on nutrition and elicitors like chitosan, where we took this approach we still needed one application of tebuconazole to dry up some yellow rust, our other wheat fields have had a full fungicide program that hasn’t been without challenge in itself and at greater cost.
David Hankey, Dunkirk Farm, Co. Durham
For more information on what to look for in a premium chitosan product, please read our blog:
https://eutrema.co.uk/chitosan-what-to-look-for-in-a-product/
Russell –
Dried up the powdery mildew on our cyclamen crop overnight.
Gordon –
We were facing disaster when mildew starting infecting our crop. We needed an organic and effective solution without delay. The team at Eutrema not only supplied the best solution but provided the technical back and support required. The plants are now looking healthy and the infestation has been completely eliminated.
Matt –
Once used the lesions on the plant sealed up wonderfully.