Producing quality fruit and vegetables to supply high end Western Australian markets is the major focus of the Canzirri family enterprise, located at Carabooda, north of Perth.

Leo Canzirri says they work 120 acres of irrigated land growing iceberg and cos lettuce and celery all year round, watermelon through the summer and cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli through the winter.

“For us quality is everything,” he says. 

“We don’t supply processors and try to stay out of the bottom end of the market– we try to produce the best quality of everything. We’re supplying the top shops and stores who want the best produce and that’s where we think we fit.”

The focus on quality can be quite demanding with crops experiencing a range of challenging weather events.

Perth started 2025 with temperatures reaching 40°C and Leo says they needed to have the irrigation and fertigation correct to maintain quality.

Growing in an outdoor environment brings other issues also, including dealing with disease in the melon and lettuce crops.

“We're only about 5km from the coast. Powdery mildew in melons seems to pop up every year. Sclerotinia in the leaf lines is always around and hard to control. We do try to keep good rotations, but it still pops up.”

He says disease is always a challenge, particularly after a harsh weather event– and they implemented a preventative fungicide program to try to keep on top of it.

Powdery mildew is one disease which has been of great concern, with the existing range of chemistry utilised in the program coming under resistance pressure, which required them to look at new options.

“We were having trouble with powdery mildew in melons,” Leo says. “We were speaking to the resellers asking if there was any new chemistry coming through that we could get on early and use it in rotation with our other ones.

“I heard about Verpixo through Brad Giles at Muirs and was keen to give it a go.”

Verpixo Adavelt active is a new Group 21 fungicide from Corteva Agriscience designed to protect melons and other cucurbit crops from damaging diseases such as powdery mildew and gummy stem blight.

“We got onto the Verpixo and it did a great job. I noticed a difference within the first couple of weeks,” Leo adds.

“It was added to our program because we were struggling to control the powdery, so I just brought it into the rotation with the other ones and it went well.

“We were seeing powdery on the leaves or foliage, and even on the fruit. After spraying Verpixo, the powdery dried up which was really good. To see something work like that is rare.”

He says melons were a relatively short season crop, so Verpixo was applied early to give the crop the best possible start. Other chemistries were then rotated through the season.

Verpixo is designed as a protectant fungicide and should be applied prior to disease infection or when conditions favour disease development.

It was able to stop disease development in the melons on the Canzirri farm and has now become an integral part of the program.

Leo says they would also look to use Verpixo to control sclerotinia in their iceberg and cos lettuce crops.

“Sclerotinia in lettuce is very hard to control,” he says.

“It’s a short cycle crop and you only have a few weeks.

“I haven’t done a lot with Verpixo in the leaf lines, but I’ll be looking forward to doing that in the winter.”