Crops and Plants

From pre-planting diagnostics to hybridization and plant genomics; to seed protection; to product safety; to in-store labeling support, EnviroLogix immunoassay kits play a significant role in protecting crop quality and reducing production costs. Immunoassay kits are effective in fungal and toxin detection, pesticide monitoring, genetic trait detection, and seed coating monitoring. As in other applications, the characteristics of low cost, simplicity, high specificity, high sensitivity and speed permit extensive screening with real-time results.

Typical applications for pesticide monitoring in Crops and Plants include:

• Seed Coating Monitoring
  
• Pesticide Monitoring
  

Seed Coating Monitoring
Another important technology for cost-effective use of pesticides is the process of coating insecticides directly on seeds to protect crop investment at the very earliest stages. By applying the insecticides directly to the seed coating, growers simultaneously assure that protection is where it is most needed, and reduce costly saturation spraying of entire fields.

To ensure these premium seeds are consistently coated with appropriate levels of pesticide, producers and distributors need to sample during the coating process and adjust accordingly. Starting from its strong base of environmental pesticide assays, EnviroLogix has developed effective protocols for monitoring pesticide concentrations on corn, cotton, canola, sunflower and sorghum seeds. EnviroLogix will gladly work with customers to develop protocols for use on additional seed types.


Pesticide Monitoring
EnviroLogix pesticide kits can be used to determine active pesticide levels in soil before planting or before further application of control chemicals. Recent studies on aldicarb and metalaxyl have documented decreasing effectiveness of the pesticides in certain conditions of heavy and repeated use. Although still preliminary, these data suggest the cause may be pesticide resistance in the target species (long a concern of producers and users alike). Another phenomenon may also be developing; this is "enhanced degradation" in which non-target bacteria in the soil actually develop a preference for the fungicide as a nutrition source, metabolize it, and compromising the fungicide's ability to attack fungi.

EnviroLogix pesticide assays, with their low cost and rapid results, can be used to screen both active fields and adjacent buffer zones, for example, to compare the effectiveness of fungicide in target and control soils. Results of the assays can help predict effectiveness of additional applications and point to either alternative treatments or crop rotation to fields where the degradation effects and mutant bacteria are not found.