MXPA96003862A - Method to improve the yields in fruits delos bana - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to: Method for improving fruit yields of bananas, characterized in that an effective and non-phytotoxic dose of a compound A is applied to bananas, chosen from: - salts of a mono-alkyl-phosphite and a cation metallic mono-, di- or tri-valent, such as Fosetil-Al, or-phosphorous acid and its alkali or alkaline-earth salts

Description

METHOD FOR IMPROVING YIELDS IN FRUIT OF BANANAS DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for improving yields in fruits of bananas. The fruit yield of bananas is currently 40 tons per hectare, and in the best conditions up to 60 tons per hectare. However, this performance may be limited by the presence of diseases, such as fusariosis or cercosporiosis, but also by other factors. Therefore it is always desirable to increase this yield in fruits, for very understandable reasons of profitability, and this independently, mainly, of the diseases that can affect the bananas or that are supposed to affect them. It is also particularly interesting to increase the average weight per plant of bunches of bananas produced by a banana plantation. An increase in this average weight, even small, corresponds, due to the very high production per hectare, to an additional crop of fruits whose quantitative importance is particularly appreciable. An object of the present invention is therefore to increase the yield in fruits of banana plantations. Another object of the present invention is to increase the yield in fruits of banana plantations, independently of the diseases that may affect these bananas or that are supposed to affect them. Another object of the present invention is to increase the average weight per plant of bunches of bananas produced by a banana plantation, and this independently of the diseases that can affect these bananas and that are supposed to affect them. It has been found that these objects could be reached in whole or in part by means of the treatment method according to the invention. The subject of the present invention is therefore a method for improving the yields in fruits of bananas, characterized in that an effective and non-phytotoxic dose of a compound A, selected from among: - salts of a mono-alkyl-phosphite, is applied to the bananas and a mono-, di- or tri-valent metal cation, such as Fosetil-Al, or - phosphorous acid and its alkali or alkaline earth salts. Fosetil-Al is aluminum tris-O-ethyl-phosphonate, described in "The Pesticide Manual", 94th edition, by Charles R. Worthing and Ray ond J. Hance published by the British Crop Pro-tection Council. The dose of the applied compound A is susceptible to vary between large limits according to the climatic conditions, the culture conditions and the frequency of the treatments carried out. For convenience, this dose is expressed in equivalent weight of phosphorous acid, of formula H3P03, applied per hectare. This dose is generally between 0.7 and 17 g / ha, preferably between 1.5 and 10.5 kg / ha. The calculation, from this dose, of the dose of a specific compound A is conveniently carried out taking into account the molecular weight of said compound and that of the phosphorous acid. In the case where the specific compound A is a salt of a mono-alkyl phosphite and a di- or trivalent metal cation, it is also appropriate to take into consideration the valence number of the corresponding cation. According to an advantageous variant of the invention, the applied compound A is Fosetil-Al. In this case, the dose of compound A, expressed by weight of Fosetil-Al applied per hectare, is between 1 and 25 kg / ha, preferably between 2 and 15 kg / ha. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the bananas to which compound A is applied are healthy bananas. For healthy bananas, bananas are understood to have no characteristic symptoms of diseases or parasites known to affect them, such as, but not exclusively, fusariosie or cercosporiosis. Healthy bananas can be mainly bananas that are the object of a classic preventive treatment against fungal diseases, said treatment being known to have no effect on fruit yield. The compound A can be applied by spraying the aerial parts of the banana plants, by any means known per se, such as with a spray or even by air. In this case, the dose of the applied compound A, expressed in equivalent weight of phosphorous acid, is usually between 0.7 and 7 kg / ha, preferably between 1.5 and 3.5 kg / ha. Advantageously this treatment can be repeated 3 times during the year following the first treatment. When, according to a preferred variant of the present invention, compound A is Fosetil-Al, the dose of compound A is between 1 and 10 kg / ha, preferably between 2 and 5 kg / ha. According to another preferred variant of the invention, compound A is applied by injection into the pseudo-stem by any means known per se. The injection can be made in the pseudo-trunk of the growing banana, which will bear fruit in the next harvest. The injection can also be carried out cumulatively in the section of the pseudo-trunk of banana plants. For pseudo-trunk of banana plants, it is intended to designate the trunk of these plants, which is non-woody in nature. By section of the pseudo-trunk, we understand the section obtained by cutting the preceding pseudo-trunk growing at a certain height from the ground (between 0.5 and 2.5 m), at the time of the last harvest of bananas. The application of compound A can be carried out by injection or by simple pouring of a treatment liquid comprising A into a cavity of the order of 5 cm depth, made in this section. This application technique allows to reduce the frequency of treatments by only 1 treatment during the period that separates the production of 2 bunches of bananas by the same plant. It also allows to carry out this treatment at the moment of the harvest of the bunch of bananas on the plant. It gives farmers an appreciable gain of time. In other words, it is necessary to understand in the sense of the present invention that a classical technique for growing banana consists of planting bananas as mother plants and making them produce large batches or plantations. Each mother plant thus arranged has a series (for example 1 to 5, generally 1 to 3) of shoots, otherwise called daughter plants, whose growth is carried out from the bulb (ie the base of the pseudo-trunk) of the mother plant. Consequently, it is easily understood that mother and daughter plants share a common root system. At an appropriate time before harvesting the fruit of the mother plant, all the daughter plants are cut with the exception of only one per mother plant, this daughter being the one that the farmer judges to have the best chance of survival. This practice allows the new generation of banana plants to be produced easily and quickly. It is possible to suppress undesirable daughter plants after harvesting the mother plants, but it is preferable to do it earlier for agronomic reasons. The bananas are collected by simply cutting the bunches of fruits. After this, the mother trees are cut in order to remove the foliage canopy. The preserved pseudo-trunks have a height ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 m, the cut thus made a section, as defined above, in the open air. This practice facilitates the growth of the daughter plants. The pseudo-stem of the mother plant is then left as it is until it deteriorates or is trimmed in stages until only the pseudo-stem of the daughter plant remains.

Compound A is injected, in this variant of the invention, or applied to the section of the pseudo-stem of the parent plant according to the description made above. This treatment, by means of the section of the pseudo-stem of the mother plant, has the advantage of improving the yield in bananas of the daughter plant. According to a particularly preferred variant of the invention, an additional dose of compound A is injected into the pseudo-stem of the daughter plant generally in the flowering state. In the case of this application by injection, the dose of compound A applied, expressed in phosphorous acid equivalent weight, is usually between 1.5 and 17 kg / ha, preferably between 2.5 and 10.5 kg / ha, which generally corresponds to a dose of compound A comprised between 0.75 and 9 g per plant, preferably between 1.5 and 5.5 g per plant. In the latter case, when compound A is Fosetil-Al, the dose of compound A is between 2 and 25 kg / ha, preferably between 4 and 15 kg / ha, which generally corresponds to a dose of Fosetil-A between 1 and 12.5 g per plant, preferably between 2 and 7.5 g per plant. For its practical application on banana plants, compound A is used in the form of a composition also object of the invention. The composition that improves the fruit yield of bananas, object of the invention, usually comprises from 0.5 to 95% of compound A in association with an acceptable support in agriculture. It can also comprise all the usual additives or adjuvants of the phytosanitary compositions, mainly surfactants, adhesive agents and flow agents. By the term "support", in the present exposition, an organic or mineral material, natural or synthetic, is designated, with which active substances are associated to facilitate its application to the plant. This support is therefore generally inert and must be acceptable in agriculture, mainly by the treated plant. The support can be solid (clays, natural or synthetic silicates, silica, resins, waxes, solid fertilizers, etc.) or liquid (water, alcohols, ketones, petroleum fractions, aromatic or paraffinic hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, liquefied gases, etc... ) . The surfactant may be an emulsifying, dispersing or wetting agent of ionic or non-ionic type. Mention may be made, for example, of poly (acrylic acid) salts, salts of lignosulfonic acids, salts of phenol-sulphonic or naphthalenesulfonic acids, polycondensates of ethylene oxide with fatty alcohols or with fatty acids or with fatty amines, substituted phenols (mainly alkyl phenols, or aryl phenols), salts of esters of sulfo-succinic acids, derivatives of taurine (mainly alkyl taurates), phosphoric esters of alcohols or polyoxyethylated phenols. The presence of at least one surfactant is desirable to promote the dispersion of the active substances in water and their good application to vegetables. This composition may also contain all kinds of other ingredients, such as, for example, protective colloids, adhesives, thickeners, thixotropic agents, penetrating agents, stabilizers, sequestering agents, pigments, dyes and polymers. More generally, the composition which can be used in the process according to the invention and / or object of the invention, can include all the solid or liquid additives corresponding to the usual phytosanitary product formulation techniques. This composition can be in solid, gelled or liquid form, and in the latter case in the form of solutions or suspensions. Liquid compositions are preferred, both because of their ease of use and because of their simplicity of manufacture.

As forms of solid compositions, powders for dusting or dispersion (with content of active compounds that can reach up to 100%), wettable powders and dispersible or soluble granules can be mentioned. Wettable powders (or powders for spraying) as well as dispersible granules usually contain 20 to 95% active matters, and in addition to the solid support, from 0 to 5% of a wetting agent, from 3 to 10% of a dispersing agent, and when necessary, from 0 to 10% of one or more stabilizers and / or other additives, such as pigments , dyes, penetrating agents, adhesives, or anti-caking agents, etc. It is known that some of these compositions, such as wettable powders or dispersible granules, are intended to constitute liquid compositions during their application. . As forms of liquid compositions, there may be mentioned solutions, in particular water-soluble concentrates, concentrated suspensions and pastes. Soluble concentrates more often comprise 10 to 80% active material, ready-to-use solutions containing, as such, 0.01 to 20% active material. As already mentioned, the aqueous dispersions, for example the compositions obtained by diluting a wettable powder according to the invention with water, are included in the general framework of the present invention. Concentrated suspensions, equally applicable by spraying, are a stable fluid product, which do not give rise to thickening or to the formation of a sediment after storage, and usually contain from 10 to 75% active matters, from 0.5 to 15%. % of surfactants, 0.1 to 10% thixotropic agents, 0 to 10% of appropriate additives, such as pigments, dyes, anti-foam agents, corrosion inhibitors, stabilizers, penetration agents and adhesives and, as a support, water or an organic liquid in which the active materials are little or not soluble: in the support certain organic solids or mineral salts can be dissolved to prevent sedimentation or as antifreeze for water. The compositions described above are prepared according to methods known per se. Thus, in order to obtain the powders for spraying or wettable powders, the active substances are mixed intimately in suitable mixers with additional substances and are crushed with mills or other grinders. Spray powders are obtained whose wettability and suspension are advantageous; they can be suspended in water at any desired concentration and these suspensions are very advantageously usable in particular for application on aerial parts of vegetables. Instead of wettable powders, concentrated pastes or suspensions can be made. The conditions and methods of realization and use of these pastes are similar to those of wettable powders or powders for pulverizing, simply performing a part of the necessary crushing operation in liquid medium. Dispersible granules are usually prepared by agglomeration or extrusion or compaction, in appropriate granulation systems, of wettable powder type compositions. The following examples are given as purely illustrative and not limiting of the advantageous properties of the process and the composition according to the invention.

Example 1: In vivo test of a composition comprising Fosetil-Al in a banana plantation: The test was carried out in a plantation of bananas that had reached a stage of regular production of fruits. This plantation was also treated periodically throughout the trial by means of a classical preventive treatment against various fungal diseases, as well as against harmful insects and nematodes, which is known to have no effect of the type of those observed below with Fosetil. -To the. The duration of the trial was 2 years. At the beginning of the first year, we proceeded to the treatment with Fosetil-Al. For this, a formulation of wettable powder of Fosetil-Al diluted in water before use was used, which was applied by means of a backpack sprayer. The application dose was 6.4 kg of Fosetil-Al per hectare. This application of Fosetil-Al was repeated every 3 months during the entire time of the trial. The average weight of a bunch of bananas harvested per plant was measured. The average value of this weight, during the 2S year of the trial, was equal to 39.8 kg. In comparison, a control test was carried out, in which there was no application of Fosetil-Al, the rest of the protocol being identical. This test yielded 38.4 kg per average value of bunch weight of bananas harvested per plant, measured under the same conditions as above. This difference, which amounts to 5% in relative value, corresponds to a considerable additional amount of fruit, of the order of 2 tons in the case in which the yield of the plantation of bananas is 40 tons of bananas / hectare.

Example 2: In vivo test of a composition comprising Fosetil-Al on a banana plantation: Example 1 was repeated, treating a plantation located on a soil of a different nature and carrying out the treatment from an airplane. The doses of Fosetil-Al applied are indicated in the following table as well as the average weights of the banana bunch obtained.

Control trial The observed differences also correspond to a very appreciable improvement of fruit yield.

Example 3: In vivo test of application of a composition comprising Fosetil-Al by injection into the growing pseudo-trunk: The test was carried out in a banana plantation that had reached a stage of regular fruit production. This plantation was also treated periodically throughout the trial by a classical preventive treatment against various fungal diseases, as well as against harmful insects and nematodes, which is known to have no effect of the type of those previously observed with Fosetil-Al. It was carried out 1 month before flowering with an injection of Fosetil-Al in the pseudo-trunk of growing banana, at a rate of 6 kg / ha (ie 3 g of Fosetil-Al per plant). The fruits were harvested 4 months later. The average weight of the bunch of bananas was 31.4 kg. The average weight of a bunch of bananas corresponding to the control trial (untreated bananas) was 28.3 kg.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (11)

1. - Method for improving fruit yields of bananas, characterized in that an effective and non-phytotoxic dose of a compound A is applied to bananas, chosen from: - salts of a mono-alkyl-phosphite and a mono-, di- - or tri-valent, such as Fosetil-Al, or - phosphorous acid and its alkali or alkaline-earth salts.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the dose of compound A, expressed in equivalent weight of phosphorous acid, is between 0.7 and 17 kg / ha, preferably between 1.5 and 10.5 kg / ha.

3. Method according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that compound A is Fosetil-Al.

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the dose of Fosetil-Al is between 1 and 25 kg / ha, preferably between 2 and 15 kg / ha.

5. Method according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that compound A is applied to healthy bananas.

6. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that compound A is applied by spraying to the aerial parts of banana plants at a dose, expressed as phosphorous acid equivalent weight, comprised between 0.7 and 7 kg / ha, preferably between 1.5 and 3.5 kg / ha.

7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the compound A is Fosetil-Al applied at a dose comprised between 1 and 10 kg / ha, preferably between 2 and 5 kg / ha.

8. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the compound A is applied by injection in the pseudo-trunk of banana plants at a dose, expressed in equivalent weight of phosphorous acid, comprised between 1.5 and 17 kg / ha, preferably between 2.5 and 10.5 kg / ha.

9. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that compound A is applied, after harvesting bananas from the mother plant, to the section of the pseudo-stem of the parent plant, by injection or by simple pouring of a liquid of treatment comprising A, and / or the pseudo-stem of the daughter plant by injection.

10. Method according to one of claims 8 or 9, characterized in that the compound A is Fosetil-Al applied at a dose comprised between 2 and 25 kg / ha, preferably between 4 and 15 kg / ha.

11. Composition that improves the fruit yield of bananas, comprising 0.5 to 95% of compound A as defined in claim 1, in association with an acceptable support in agriculture.