Stress events like excessive heat, flooding, hail, pests and diseases; or exposure to spray drift can have devastating effects on crop growth and yields.
Stoller Australia has developed a stress recovery program to minimise the impact of stress on plants and maintain optimum growth and yield.
The simple two-step strategy can be used successfully with a wide range of tree crops.
When a stress event occurs the plant shuts down. It goes into a type of suspended animation or coma. Eventually it either starts a recovery process or dies.
When the plant first shuts down there is an opportunity to help it recover from the stress and to minimise the lost time incurred.
Two-step strategy
Firstly, we don’t want the tree to be lacking any essential elements, so it is important to supply a broth of primary, secondary and micronutrients.
Secondly, the roots are the brains of the plant. Plants die from the roots up and regenerate from the roots up, so we need to supply ‘food’ and activation to the roots.
The roots get their food from the leaves so, providing there is some green leaf tissue, a foliar application can help.
Zinc
Provision of zinc is also important, as zinc is a precursor for an important growth hormone called auxin.
Be aware that some varieties of stone fruit are sensitive to leaf applied zinc, and in these cases soil application is preferred.
Anti-stress
Finally an anti-stress nutrient compound can assist, again by initiating new growth and lessening the down-time from stress.
Figure 1 shows how stress events limit the expression of the crop over time, and once a limiting factor is introduced, that lost expression cannot be regained.
Our aim is to reduce the number of stress events and lessen the impact of each stress event.
Stoller’s stress recovery program
Step 1
As soon as possible after the stress event, apply Stoller’s Bio-Forge at 1.2 L/ha and Stoller’s Zinc Chelate (on non-sensitive varieties) at 2 L/ha to restore healthy growth.
Bio-Forge will give the plants a nutrient boost and trigger new shoot growth, while Stoller’sZinc Chelate is an essential component of many proteins and vital to many plant functions.
Step 2
Four to five days after the initial treatment, apply Stoller’s Foli-Zyme at 5 L/ha to feed the new growth and promote healthy growth.
Foli-Zyme is a full nutrient spray to promote healthy tissue development.
Applying Stoller’s Bio-Forge in combination with Foli-Zyme will give plants the nutrient boost they need, trigger new shoot growth and help fruitfulness and root growth.
Stoller’s stress recovery program is suitable for a broad range of crops including vegetables, tree crops and vines.
To find out more, contact your Stoller representative on 1800 FERTILISER or
See this article in Tree Fruit December 2013
