Savitan

What is Savitan?

 

Savitan is a liquid concentrate based on extracts from plants, including desert plants, and fatty acids. Savitan increases the resistance of the crop, making it suitable for use during times when a crop is weak and therefore more susceptible to damage. The plant is then not very able to resist disease-causing (pathogenic) organisms. By giving Savitan as a nutrient to the plant the defence system is activated sooner so that the probability of infection is considerably reduced. In effect, the plant is more alert.

Furthermore, Savitan protects your crop against harmful nematodes such as the root knot nematode and free-living nematodes.

How does Savitan work?

1. Increasing resistance

One of the main constituents of Savitan is salicylic acid This acid has two functions in the plant. In the first place it protects the plant by strengthening the cell walls. In the second place it activates the plant's defence system, so that it can offer more resistance to various pathogenic organisms. Moreover the fatty acids that are present (palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids) ensure that the structure of the cell wall is strengthened. This in turn strengthens the plant, so that pathogenic organisms have more difficulty in gaining entry.

2. Protection from nematodes

Free-living nematodes

The way Savitan acts on nematodes differs for the different types of nematode. In free-living nematodes, which spend 90% of their lives outside the plant, the salicylic acid in Savitan slows the sloughing of the skin. Moreover the free-living nematode becomes disoriented by the aromatic substances in Savitan and cannot find the roots so quickly.

Root knot nematodes

In root knot nematodes the female, in particular, causes a great deal of damage. Once it is out of the egg, it finds a niche among the roots of a plant, near to the vascular bundles. To feed itself it then produces large cells, which can be seen from the outside as knots. The bigger the knots, the more the vascular bundles in the root of the plant have been squeezed off. Administering Savitan strengthens the cell walls so that the cells immediately around the vascular bundles can resist a greater pressure.

Application

• Savitan can be applied throughout the crop period.
• Savitan can be mixed with nutrients (drip or irrigation)
• It is advisable to start early in the crop, or after steam sterilisation, in order to keep the nematodes burden as low as possible.

Dosage:

1 litre per hectare. Repeat every fortnight.

In soil crops where fortnightly application is not possible or desirable:

2 litres per hectare. Repeat every 4 weeks.

Important: Never use Savitan simultaneously with hydrogen peroxide products.

For dosage advice, contact DeruNed.                             back