PlantMate Lettuce

Trichoderma WP for drenching seedling plugs prior to field planting.

Overview

PlantMate Lettuce is a high activity WP designed to inoculate seedling plugs prior to field planting. It uses a single strain of Trichoderma Atroviride (LU132) found to have a wide spectrum of bioactivity and which forms the backbone of other registered products overseas, including Sentinel (NZ) and Tenet (NZ) for Botrytis and Onion White Rot.

PlantMate Lettuce helps seedlings thrive under field conditions, assisting with plant establishment and crop resilience.

Application

PlantMate Lettuce comes in a 200g pack designed to treat around 25,000 plugs.

Mix at 2g/L and apply 2ml per plug .

PlantMate Lettuce is compatible with existing insecticides and can be combined with other sprays at nurseries prior to dispatch.

Documentation

What is it and how does it work?

What is it?

PlantMate Lettuce is a Trichoderma based wettable powder, specially formulated to treat a large number of seedling plugs with a small amount of material.

Named with reference to the crop in which the research originated, PlantMate Lettuce was developed by researchers at Lincoln University who were attempting to improve crop health in paddocks that were ravaged with sclerotinia.

Now used widely across Australia and New Zealand can underpin an effective conventional growing programme whilst being organically certified and relevant to all growers.

How does it work?

PlantMate Lettuce is best applied a few days prior to field planting, although many growers favour application at planting via a waterwheel system or post-planting through irrigation.

By applying before receipt on farm, the Trichoderma has time to colonise the entire plug and create important root connections that can last right through to harvest.

As a single strain, LU132 has been shown to be an effective root endophyte, able to colonise roots of all growing plants from maize and pasture grasses to lettuce, legumes and brassicas.

PlantMate Lettuce can be used onall seedling plugs and whilst it targets crop health, it has the potential for growth promotion which is most important where large plants lead to a greater farm gate payout. Try Lettucemate on celeryor similar crops to see the benefits.

Key Features

In our trial work, we have measured:

Superior Establishment and Persistence

Increased Root and Foliar Growth

Improved Crop Quality

Higher Yields and Greater Profitability

Trial Results

Sclerotinia minor lettuce drop

This grower had been part of university trial work targeting sclerotinia minor lettuce drop. Due to increasing plant losses, he used PlantMate Lettuce across the paddock, agreeing to leave three rows untreated. Two metre plots were selected from the control and the treated plots, creating a total of 13 reps for each.

Assessments were made on the basis of Healthy, Symptoms or Dead.

Around 20 plants were graded per plot – 260 for each treatment.

The % of each is presented in the graphic below and the visual impression of the trial area was incredibly powerful.