Agrii trials have shown that adding a plant health elicitor to sugar beet fungicide programmes can improve the plant’s own defences to significantly reduce foliar disease levels and improve green leaf area. For the past three years, it has trialled conventional fungicide treatments with and without the biostimulant, Innocul8, explains Don Pendergrast, technical manager for non-combinable crops at Agrii. The active ingredient is the peptide PHC101. This is combined with manganese and zinc, both of which are crucial components in many plant enzymes. As with a flu vaccine in humans, peptides trigger a hypersensitive response in plants, says Don. This…