NEW TRIALS data from food business, Birds Eye, has confirmed the importance of integrating the use of pre-emergence herbicides in managing the potential threat of potato apples in vining peas.

A serious contamination that can lead to complete crop rejection, potato apples (pictured right) have already caused Birds Eye to terminate contracts with some growers in Norfolk and Suffolk. Now, growers of vining peas in Scotland have been advised to consider controlling them.

Andrew Whiting, agronomy manager for Birds Eye, said this week that his company had been looking at ways of reducing the problem of potato apples (or berries as they are also called) in vining peas over a three-year period.

“Trials and commercial usage has already demonstrated that the use of BASF’s Nirvana in fields where potato volunteers are likely to be a problem reduces the number of potato berries going into the factory or spotted during scanning in the factory.

“Last season, we looked at two different dose rates of Nirvana, 3 l/ha and 3.5 l/ha. The higher dose rate reduced the number of potato flowers and hence the potato volunteer’s ability to produce berries by 78%, which was a good result. It was also crop safe.”

Mr Whiting said potato berries are produced by potato tubers left in the soil from a previous crop and are of similar size and colour to peas. “If they are left in the crop, they will contaminate the vining pea sample and lead to rejection.

“We are now advising growers to use an integrated programme based on drilling dates and the use of Nirvana, which is the only really effective chemical solution we have.”

Containing imazamox and pendimethalin, Nirvana also controls all important weeds in vining peas, including black-bindweed, charlock, common poppy, fat-hen, knotgrass, orache and redshank, as well as common chickweed, fumitory, henbit dead-nettle, speedwells, red dead-nettle and scarlet pimpernel. It is recommended pre-emergence in all varieties of vining peas.