2023-06-30 08:09:14
On a large scale, dynamically and precisely, the new “Herbitur”® Research and Development Center undertook scientific experiments important for agricultural practice.
The students that Prof. Tonev teaches and relies on: Mihail Todorov, Tsvetomir Koev and Tolga Mustafa (from left to right)
As the readers guess from the name, the center is managed by Prof. Dr. Toño Tonev – author of the “Herbitur”® project. After retiring as a teacher and researcher at the Agricultural University (AU) – Plovdiv, Prof. Tonev created his own “Herbitur”® Center. Together with a large group of 14 students from the Agricultural University – Plovdiv, the construction of the material base of this new Center was started. Currently, three of these students continue to be in Professor Tonev’s “closest orbit”. They are excellent students at AU, and have the unique chance to absorb the professor’s lessons every day. Partners in the project continue to be global companies related to agrarian business. Prof. Tonev has worked with all of them and over the years has built a strong partnership based on trust.
The three most trusted students who are close to the professor are Mikhail Todorov, Tolga Mustafa and Tsvetomir Koev. They are on their way to getting their bachelor’s degree and enrolling in a master’s degree. “And why not a doctorate,” interjects the professor, who says he is extremely pleased with their curiosity, diligence and very good upbringing. “Indeed, these are very high-quality, precise and responsible young people,” summarizes the teacher.
„All my research work has always been and continues to be aimed at solving specific real or potential problems relevant to practice. That’s how I choose the problems, that I try to anticipate the moment when the agricultural workers find them. I want to be able to tell the companies in the industry themselves, as well as the farmers, that a given problem is fundamentally important, potentially dangerous and should be given special attention in timeProf. Tonev shares.
Scientific experiments are carried out as vascular and as field trials. The vessel experiments were carried out in the newly built Center for research and implementation activity “Herbitur”®, which is located in the farm of the farmers “Bratya Raichevi” OOD in the land of the village of Krumovo in Plovdiv.
Read more: Prof. Toño Tonev created his own Research Center for the joy of seed and fertilizer companies, and companies from the pesticide business
Polish attempts are … on the fields, but not anywhere, but where the real problems are the biggest!
Experiments with rape hybrids in the company of blue wrist
During the current economic year, Prof. Tonev and his team are partnering with 4 seed companies. These are BASF, Bayer’s Dekalb, Rapoul and KWS. For several years in a row, on this subject, the researcher has also worked with the Limagrain company, with which they are about to renew their joint work this fall.
A total of 28 canola hybrids of the four companies were tested for sensitivity to the parasitic weed blue wrist. The experiments are positioned at two points in the country, where over the years, according to data from farmers and according to Prof. Tonev’s personal impressions, there has been a proven attack on the areas by blue wrist. The points where the experiments are carried out are in the village of Krepost, Haskovo region and in the village of General Inzovo, Yambolsko.
„The blue wrist problem in rapeseed crops is not known in many areas of Bulgaria, but where it exists, it is sometimes in terrifying density. One part of this total of 28 canola hybrids of the four companies is Clearfield. The idea here is to establish the sensitivity of each hybrid separately, without the intervention of a herbicide, against the parasite. In the variants where the seeds are intended for Clearfield technology, we observe the behavior of herbicide-treated crops as well as untreated ones. At one point we are looking for the synergistic action of the less sensitive blue wrist hybrid and simultaneously supporting it with the imazamox-containing herbicide Pulsar in the Clearfield technology“, the famous herbologist explained the essence of the experiment.
The ‘resistant ryegrass’ disaster
„Another problem that we have been working with for several years and for now is of a local nature is the control of resistant biotypes of Italian ryegrass to certain herbicides. From more and more places in the country, especially in the region of South-Eastern Bulgaria, I receive information about the impossibility of colleagues to deal with this problem without even suspecting that it is a matter of resistance. Our trials in 2023 are with products of a total of five companies in the pesticide business. These are herbicides from BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, FMC and Adama“, the researcher listed.
Prof. Tonev’s team is trying to combat the emerging resistance of ryegrass, which has managed to create a kind of “armor” against otherwise highly effective herbicides against this weed. During all the years of fighting against this weed, the company “Kronos” was hosted on the land of the village of Ovchi Kladenets in Yambol.
„Resistance to herbicides is a relatively new phenomenon for Bulgaria, but it has long been known in many regions of Europe and the world. He can predict with a high degree of certainty that this problem is about to get bigger, both for our country and globally. According to literature data, some weeds have developed resistance, including to the total systemic herbicide glyphosate. One of the major problems in Western Europe is the control of resistant biotypes of foxtail weed. Fortunately, this problem does not yet exist in Bulgaria“, informed the professor.
He added that in the fall of 2023 trials will be conducted, not only with wheat, but also with canola in fields weeded with the ryegrass in question.
Trial results so far show that many of the tested soil and early-vegetation herbicides provide fairly high efficacy against resistant ryegrass (about 75% to 80%). The problem is that this weed has a large productive brotherhood and an extremely high reproductive rate. Thus, the remaining unaffected 20 – 25% of the plant is quite numerous and has the potential to cause irreparable damage to wheat.
„At the moment in our trials, we mainly work with soil and early-vegetation herbicides, which we apply mainly in the fall. The goal is to “smother” weeds in the earliest stages of germination and emergence. But these herbicides are not infinitely persistent. We have situations where in late autumn or early spring the herbicide effect has already greatly decreased. Then appears the so-called secondary, and I would say even tertiary weeding, i.e. quite late, including spring emergence of ryegrass. Traditionally, it sprouts in the month of October together with the culture, and sometimes even overtakes it. It continues to sprout even during the warm days of November. And as it was during this warm winter, the ryegrass was breaking through the soil, all season longProf. Tonev summarized the observations so far.
And he added that the big problem comes from the fact that the biological temperature minimum of weeds is lower than that of the crop. At some point the wheat stops growing and the tares continue. “This is quite dangerous for the practice, because in the fall the weeds are in one state, but in the spring, going to the field and we see that the picture is completely differentexplained the professor.
It seems that the fight against this species will not be possible with only one product, but probably with a system of herbicides. It is imperative that the autumn soil or early-vegetation treatment be combined with an early-vegetation spring application of herbicides with satisfactory efficacy. In this way, the problem can be expected to be minimized and, above all, to be localized, so that it does not spread very quickly to larger areas. In this sense, the search and finding of economically satisfactory solutions continues…!
The nightmare of sunflower crops is called wild hemp
The third problem that the “Herbitur” Center deals with very actively is the control of wild hemp in sunflower. For sunflower crops, this weed is a real nightmare. “Every farmer who has wild hemp in his fields is well aware of the problem and all the difficulties and setbacks associated with its controlProf. Tonev said.
„The spring of 2023 was unusually cool and wet, and herbicides, including traditional herbicides that work satisfactorily on wild hemp, applied to sunflower did not perform as expected. At the cost of many efforts – two, three, even in places and with four times treatment with herbicides, we managed to bring the weed in question to an economically tolerable density“, revealed a satisfied Prof. Tonev.
„Here I would like to express gratitude on my behalf and on behalf of the Raychevi brothers to the colleagues from Korteva for providing us with additional quantities of company samples intended for production trials“, he specifically noted.
Read more: Prof. Toño Tonev created his own Research Center for the joy of seed and fertilizer companies, and companies from the pesticide business
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