Lallemand Plant Care Products Provide Nature Based Solutions

Excerpts of an interview between the Napa Green team and Matthew Needham of Lallemand Plant Care. 

Matthew Needham: I work for Lallemand Plant Care.We’ve been in business for over a hundred years. Lallemand is focused on bringing microbials to the market where we can reduce the chemical footprint worldwide.

Sierra Minchaca: Nematodes are microscopic worms that attack vine roots, causing stunted growth for nutrient uptake and increased vulnerability to drought and disease. Over time, this weakens the vines, reduces yields and shortens their lifespan. Because they’re underground and hard to detect, Nematodes can be a hidden but serious challenge for vineyards.

Ben Mackie: I’ve had a number of growers reach out to me looking for organic solutions to dealing with nematodes in the soil, especially once the vines are already in the ground. Conventionally, that’s usually dealt with by fumigating the soil, which is really destructive to the soil microbiome and not something that we would promote in any way

Matthew Needham: You can apply this directly through the drip, and that’s where the nematodes are gonna be moving around through the water. And, you’re putting that fungal spore right on them, it needs to come in contact with nematode eggs, immatures or the adult females. And the fungi comes in contact, germinates on it, and starts the process of creating mycelia. Then the hyphae is a physical pressure, which actually kills the nematode and uses that as a food source. So it’s a physical death of the nematode. As long as it comes in contact, the product will work. It is OMRI approved and it’s highly efficacious in multiple crops, including grapes. It is also compatible with mycorrhizae, empathic nematodes, which are beneficial nematodes, and beneficial fungi such as trichoderma.

Ben Mackie: Grape growers meticulously manage their crops, but one major issue growers have very little control over are heat spikes in the growing season that can destroy grape quality and wither the grapes on the vines. There are limited solutions for producers to address these heat spikes like we saw in Labor Day 2022.

Matthew Needham: Osmo is a 100% plant derived product, so it actually helps with the photosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism, and it reduces abiotic stresses, such as frost, heat stress, or if you have any salinity problems. So this can be tank mixed and applied 24 to 48 hours before the stress event. It’s taken up by the plant and it lasts weeks in preventing the stress.

Ben Mackie: So back in 2022, we had a really high heat spike here in Napa Valley where it got up to 118 degrees here in Rutherford and it really impacted the wine quality and the grape quality and how people could craft the wines that they wanted. So how could this product help in a situation like that?

Matthew Needham: Yeah, it’s, this will actually help while the grapes are the vine and it also helps in post harvest as well.

Ben Mackie: You also mentioned it helps in the spring with frost events. Would that be applied at bud break or how, how does that work?

Matthew Needham: You can go all the way through the season, starting a flowering or bud break. You can do it on a monthly rotation, it usually lasts, you know, two to four weeks, depending on the rate and how much foliage you have.

Ben Mackie: Grapes are a pretty resilient crop, but one of the biggest problems facing North Coast grape growers is controlling powdery mildew through the season. Powdery mildew can impact plant health as well as grape quality. And organic producers in particular have limited tools in their toolbox- it’s mainly sulfur. So we’re always looking for new solutions for our growers. Today we’re talking about LALSTOP, which is another OMRI listed organic product. Can you tell me about the mechanism that it performs to control powdery mildew in the grape crop?

Matthew Needham: LALSTOP G46 is an organic bio fungicide that has three modes of action: It occupies the space on the plant surface. After spray, it releases secondary metabolites, which will affect the growth and outcompete the mildew. It also releases enzymes, which will actually consume the fungi. And its also compatible in rotation with copper, potassium bicarbonate and sulfur products.