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Winter wheat

Influence of Albit on winter wheat was examined in 35 field trials in 10 regions of Russia (Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Bryansk, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov oblasts, Krasnodar and Stavropol krais). By now, Albit is used in all main wheat-growing regions of Russia (European part of the country, North Caucasus, Povolzhye). Trials were performed in 1998-2004 on the following varieties of wheat: Tarasovskaya-29, Mironovskaya-808, Pobeda-50, Batko, Deya, Kroshka, Lira, Rufa, Moskovskaya-39, Skifyanka, Donskaya bezostaya, Don-95, Prikumskaya-110, Prikumskaya-140, Prikumchanka, Prikumskaya-124, Inna, Umanka, Vita, and Ofeliya in All-Russia Institute of Leguminous and Groat Crops, All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection, All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection RAAS, All-Russia Institute of Biological Plant Protection, Soil Institute, Lipetsk State Sort Testing Station, Central Institute of Agrochemical Service, Kursk Institute of Agroindustrial Manufacturing, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Saratov Regional Plant Protection Stations, Prikumsk Agricultural Experimental Station, Closed Agricultural Corporation Rus, Rodina collective farm, Bryzgalin i Uvarov’s farm, Zolotaya Niva agrofirma, Praskoveya agricultural cooperative farm, OSC Chapaev breeding farm, Kubanagro-Fasta LLC, Yug Agrobisnes OSC, Kushchevskoe agricultural cooperative farm, Niva Closed Agricultural Corporation, Zaria agricultural farm, and in other farms of Zernograd and Peschankopsk rayons of Rostov oblast, Grachevskiy Agricultural cooperative farm of Lipetsk oblast.

Depending on hydro-meteorological conditions of the year, the way of treatment and region of growing, yield increase of winter wheat due to Albit was 1.0-12.5 centners/hectare. Averagely, according to results of all performed trials, treatment with Albit increased yield of winter wheat by 5 centners/hectare (13.2%). In Voronezh oblast Albit increased yield of winter wheat averagely by 3.9 centners/hectare, by 6.1 centners/hectare in Krasnodar krai, by 6.8 centners/hectare in Kursk and Lipetsk oblasts, by 7.3 centners/hectare in Oryol oblast, by 4 centners/hectare in Ryazan oblast, by 3.3 centners/hectare in Saratov oblast, by 3.9 centners/hecatare in Stavropol krai.

Application recommendations. Recommended full treatment of winter wheat with Albit includes presowing treatment and at least one (better - two) foliar spraying. Presowing treatment creates approximately 50-60% of the total effect; the rest (40-50%) can be reached with foliar sprayings. Recommended application rates of Albit are: 30-40 ml/tonne, 30-40 ml/hectare. The higher rate (40 ml) is used at application of Albit in mixture with chemical pesticides.

For presowing seed treatment, Albit is recommended to apply together with halved doses of chemical protectant that makes possible considerable reduction of treatment cost when retaining the protective effect. In trials, yield increase of winter wheat due to presowing treatment with Albit was 7-19% over control. Treatment of seeds protects plants against root rots, increases germination, improves rootage (increases length and weight of roots), and increases tillering of plants. Seed treatment with Albit might be used as a separate agricultural technique, but it is better to secure and improve its effect with following foliar sprayings of vegetating plants.

Foliar treatments with Albit effectively prevent leaf infections (brown rust, powdery mildew, Septoria leaf spot), increase productive tillering and flag leaf growth, accelerate alternation of development stages, increase plant resistance to drought and heat, promote formation of additional seeds in ear, increase gluten content in grain. We recommend to combine Albit treatments with scheduled application of herbicides, insecticides and liquid fertilizers.

The first foliar treatment (at EC stages 20-39) is the most effective one. Usually it is combined with application of herbicides after winter hibernation of plants. Plants weakened by hibernation, root rots and herbicidal stress respond to Albit treatment with dramatic yield increase, which might reach 10 centners/hectare under field conditions. The highest effectiveness of such treatment was obtained in farms of Rostov oblast and Krasnodar krai. For example, one of biggest and prosperous agricultural companies (Yug-Agrobiznes OSC) in 2004 treated fields (19000 hectares) with combination of Albit and herbicides based on a.i. mefenpyr-diethyl, amidosulphuron, iodosulphuron-methyl, dicamba and triasulphuron. The average yield from treated fields was 67.6 centners/hectare, whereas neighboring farms (which did not use Albit) harvested averagely 55.1 centners/hectare.

Application of herbicides causes pronounced stress on wheat that makes it more sensitive to leaf infections, that in turn requires additional fungicidal treatments. Application of Albit as an active immunizer makes possible avoiding application of expensive fungicides. In case of high infectious environment when application of fungicide is still necessary, it is possible to use Albit with halved dose of the pesticide that anyway leads to considerable reduction of expenses.

Albit is the only biopesticide officially registered in Russia as a drought resistance promoter of field crops (List of pesticides allowed to use in Russia, 2006). Foliar spraying with Albit increases drought resistance by 10-60%; increased drought resistance remains for several months after treatment. In dry 2003, farmers of Krasnodar krai due to using of Albit managed to get the same yield as in normal 2002 (50-70 centners/hectare).

Also, Albit is a strong plant growth promoter. Acceleration of phenological phases change and maturation due to Albit might reash 4-8 days.

The second foliar treatment (in EC stages 50-69) increases effectiveness of the first one by 20-30% and can be used as an additional agricultural technique, but it should follow earlier treatments. It increases number of seeds in ear, length of ear, weight and appearance of grain, gluten content and gluten tensility, decreases ear emptiness. The second foliar spraying (usually combined with urea and insecticides) is used for yield quality improvement mainly. Albit increases gluten content by 0.4-5.1% (2.3% averagely). It is necessary to note, that preceding treatments (presowing and first foliar) are also considerably increase this characteristic.

In this period winter wheat is being treated with insecticides against shield-backed bugs and other pests. As is known, insecticide treatments retards seed ripening and decreases gluten content in the future yield. Joint using of Albit and insecticides abolishes this effect: Albit increases gluten accumulation by 1.2-4.6% over control (variant with insecticide only).

The usual application rates of urea used under field conditions is up to 30 kg/hectare, or 10% solution approximately (up to 30% at air spray), whereas concentration of even 1% inflicts burns and is considered to be toxic for plant growth. Albit added to urea solution is able to completely relieve this toxic influence of urea on plants.

Combination of Albit with humates (especially with lignohumate) is also quite promising. At farms of Krasnodar krai in 2004 Albit increased gluten content by 2.9%, whereas its combination with lignohumate increased gluten content by 5.3%.

The highest effectiveness of Albit treatment can be reached with two foliar sprayings. Foliar sprayings might be used as a separate and quite efficient agricultural technique, however, the full potential of Albit can be realized by the use of combination of presowing treatment and two foliar sprayings.

Short-interval (1 day) double application of Albit on winter wheat is also quite interesting technique. Grachevskiy agricultural cooperative farm of Lipetsk oblast in 2004 used this method: first of coupled applications of Albit was combined with herbicide, the second (Albit alone) followed on the next day. In result, yield increase at single treatment was 4.5 centners/hectare, whereas double application provided extra 10 centners/hectare.

Albit is officially registered in Russia as a fungicide against following diseases of winter wheat: root rots (Fusarium spp., Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc.) Shoemaker), brown rust (Puccinia recondita Roberge: Desm. f. sp. tritici (Erikss.) C.O. Johnston), Septoria leaf spot (Septoria spp.) and powdery mildew (Blumeria (Erysiphe) graminis (DC)). Though Albit does not have eradicating activity, it can improve plant immunity and suppress disease development at beforehand application. According to performed tests it was found that the average Biological Effectiveness (BE) of Albit against root rots is 81.0%, against Septoria leaf spot - 52.1%, against powdery mildew – 51.0%, against brown rust – 49.1%, against loose smut – 39.4%. The maximal biological effectiveness of the bioformulation was 83-100%; Albit is the most helpful against root rots (BE 67-100%, averagely 81%). Albit demonstrated its fungicidal activity in wide range of infection levels: at disease prevalence (P) from 4 to 100%, and disease development (R) from 2 to 34%. However, at high infectious environment (infestation with complex of pathogens over 50%, 10% level of is internal infections), activity of the bioformulation gets considerably lower. In such cases, Albit is recommended to be used with halved or full doses of chemical fungicides. In case of air infections, Albit should be used before appearance of the first signs of disease to immunize plants properly.

As it was shown in multiple trials, application of Albit with halved doses of chemical fungicides for presowing seed treatment and foliar sprayings results in the same protective effect as full doses of fungicides and considerably reduces treatment expenses (see details here.

For example, specialists of All-Russia Institute of Biological Plant Protection studied the effectiveness of Albit foliar sprayings against air infections of winter wheat. Experiment was performed under conditions of naturally high infectious environment (nearly epiphytotic). Observations on disease development at 21st day demonstrated that in control set (without treatment) infestation of flag and sub-flag leafs with brown rust (Puccinia recondita) and Septoria leaf spot (Septoria tritici, Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) was 58% and 26% respectively. Biological effectiveness of Albit against rusts was 52%, against septorioses – 26%. BE of halved doses of most commonly used fungicides based on a.i. propiconazole, cyproconazole, epoxiconazole, spiroxamine and tebuconazole was also not very high – 58-60% against rusts, 49% against septorioses. However, BE of mixtures of Albit and halved doses of these pesticides was 86-89% against rusts and 78-80% against septorioses, that is comparable with BE of full doses of pesticides (76-90%).

The effectiveness of the bioformulation is variety-dependent. So, in trials of Prikumsk Agricultural Experimental Station, application of Albit was most efficient on wheat varieties Prikumchanka and Prikumskaya 124 (both are hard wheat varieties) and less efficient – on wheat variety Pobeda 50. Soil and climatic conditions also influence on Albit effectiveness. For example, average yield increase in relatively dry regions (Saratov oblast, Stavropol krai) was 3-4 centners/hectare, whereas in more humid ones (Krasnodar krai, Kursk and Oryol oblasats) – 6-7 centners/hectare. The next factor influencing on Albit effectiveness is the predecessor. In Rostov oblast (2001-2002), yield increase due to Albit presowing treatment was 11 centners/hectare after fallow and just 4-6 centners/hectare when there was no fallow year.

Treatments of winter wheat with Albit are economically efficient. Cost of presowing treatment of 1 tonne of wheat seed is 66-88 roubles (about 2.64-3.52 USD), cost of foliar spraying of 1 hectare is the same. Full complex treatment of 1 hectare field with Albit (presowing seed treatment and two foliar sprayings) takes approximately 80 ml of the formulation (that costs 173 roubles or 6.92 USD). Each litre of Albit can be used for treatment of 12.7 hectares of wheat.

The net profit of Albit application on one hectare of wheat field is 1000-2500 roubles (40-100 USD), each rouble invested to such treatment brings back 4-15 roubles of profit. Practically, the profit might be even higher (1 invested rouble might bring up to 50 roubles of profit), as far as even partial treatment (for example, just presowing seed treatment + one foliar spraying) is quite efficient. Each litre of Albit (88-100 USD) provides an average additional yield of 63 centners of winter wheat.

In field trials, effect of Albit was not inferior to that of plant growth regulators and fungicides based on propiconazole, humates, silicon compounds, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, triadimenol, orthocresoxiacetates, cyproconazole, derivates of arachidonic acid, epibrassinolide, Pseudomonas aureofaciens and its metabolites, and others. Supremacy of Albit was demonstrated in number of comparative experiments. Though fungicidal activity of Albit is generally lower than that of the best chemical fungicides, but due to integrated plant growth stimulating activity, protective effectiveness and low cost, Albit excels chemical analogues in terms of economical efficiency. For example, in trial of All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection (2002), each rouble invested to Albit treatment brought 52 roubles of profit, whereas application of chemical analogues based on thiram and tebuconazole brought just 1.5 roubles, though their fungicidal activity was higher.