A New South Wales professional rose grower approached us a couple of months ago, to discuss what support we could offer in treating pests and fungal diseases in his crops. In addition to pest and disease, his crop was also showing significant signs of heat stress, which was affecting overall plant health and yield.

Having had previous success with using POPUL8 as a soil treatment, his question to us related to what options were there for a foliar application, and coincidentally a product that is currently under development, called CHECKM8, was ready for trial.

The grower held off any fungicide applications for 1-2 weeks prior to the application (to ensure no lingering residue could impact the microbes) and then applied at a rate of 1-2ml checkm8 per litre of water . After 1 week, he reported that “the “whole crop is showing signs of recovery from heat stress, good recovery growth and a reduction in fungal pressure in the areas that were treated” with CHECKM8.

Further, “We are having good results with the control of fungal diseases in the rose cultivation, using trial beneficial bacteria (CHECKM8), we are now looking at using this approach on a permanent basis. It has allowed us to adopt the use of integrated pest management for the pest control and reduce the need for heavy pesticides.”

Knowing that this problem is not unique to commercial flower growing, the grower pointed out, “For home gardeners facing the same issues, soil balance has to be resolved first, then POPUL8 directly onto the soil, followed by CHECKM8 a foliar. Without the previous steps, CHECKM8 may not have the same impact. For roses, high potassium will cause an issue if used to long (nutrient antagonism) and can cause growth in the fungal problem – hence use high potassium products sparingly when fungal disease is present”.