Major Pythium and Pytophthora infestation eliminated

Future Growing, formerly Proeftuin Ron Peters, has involved Ultramins in a major test of spore control in water from a deep water culture (DWC) system crop. Ultramins previously commissioned its own tests at this trial garden for ToBRF virus. The tests were carried out with great success.

Ron: "We had a problem that a certain test crop for a customer kept breaking down and we were sure the water was the problem. And that was correct, Eurofins Agro took water samples and all the water in the tank was heavily contaminated with Pytofthora and Pythium. This is an actual situation, as would actually be worked by real DWC growers. This is a DWC tank measuring 5x20m and about 40cm. Because Ultramins had achieved such good results with me against ToBRFV, I approached them to fix these issues. There is no other way to treat water in tanks. You place a transmitter and otherwise you have no work to do, the cavitation pressure waves from the transmitters do their job and eliminate all traces. Afterwards, we applied the same transmitters in much larger tanks with the same success, there too all spores were killed."

Water samples were taken by Eurofins Agro and gave the following DNA picture:

Exactly 14 days after the above sample, a new water sample was taken and placed out to demonstrate the vitality of the fungi. This showed that no trace of Pytofthera or Pythium was found alive in the water. Ron: "This was also consistent with the picture of the crop, as it was doing extremely well, where it was rapidly dying the weeks before."

Robert de Hoo, owner of Ultramins: "We fitted this entire tank with only one USAF cavitating ultrasonic transmitter, namely the USAF DT 100 Watt. The reason a water sample was taken only after 2 weeks is here that biofilm was present. Biofilm contains many spores and so these had to be eliminated first. These results within such a short time are of course super."

He feels it is important to pass along that the transmitters work much faster. "With our USAF cavitating ultrasonic transmitters, we also treat basins and silos. With silos, speed of disinfection is most important because a silo sometimes empties several times a day. We have suitable solutions for all gardens and after installation, water quality is almost no longer a concern. It is also important to mention that besides Pythium and Pytophthora, our transmitters also kill algae, biofilm and other pathogens, even the persistent Fusarium."

Publication date: Mon 2 Oct 2023