Fruit trees and all plants grown in Australia’s tough agricultural environment are at risk of becoming stressed.
Drought, pests and diseases, poor nutrition and other harsh weather conditions can all play havoc with a plant’s productivity and production, negatively affecting your crop.
Plant stress occurs when the plant is placed in unfavourable conditions either through naturally occurring (weather conditions) or though other factors such as root disturbance or irrigation issues (over/underwatering).
Causes and impacts of stress
Plant stress can be instigated by abiotic and biotic factors.
Abiotic stresses can be situations like wind, rain, drought, over irrigation or extreme temperatures. These factors come from the external environment of the plant.
Biotic stresses in plants come through unfavourable interactions with organisms such as pests or diseases present in soil or surrounding environment.
The accumulation of stress hormones: ethylene and abscisic acid, can disrupt growth patterns during stressful conditions with growth not resuming once the stressful conditions abates. This can manifest in either stunted growth or uncontrolled vegetative growth shifting vital nutrients away from the roots.
Weaker roots lead to lower yields and decrease fruit/seed quality.
Reducing Plant Stress
Once your crop has a stable soil foundation, management practices that encourage adequate nutrient supply should be encouraged.
This will not only reduce your crops susceptibility to stress but also enable your plant to recover after stress inducing events. Good nutrient delivery lessens the impacts of the plants production of stress hormones and assists your crop to resume healthy active growth as quickly as possible.
Stoller Australia products are the solution
Foli-Zyme is a unique nutrient combination with Stoller’s Co-Factors. This proven product can enhance healthy growth, providing a foliar boost and assist your trees during stress related events. In addition, Foli-Zyme helps your trees to recover from stress and slow growth by enhancing both new vegetative and root growth.
Recovery after extreme stress
Aside from the normal stresses faced by crops during the average growing season—extreme stress events such as excessive rain or extreme temperatures can have catastrophic effects on the yield of your fruit trees.
Following Stoller Australia’s recovery strategy and using Stoller’s quality range of products to bolster nutrition ensures your trees receive the support they need to develop into a strong healthy crop year after year.
Step 1—Apply Stoller Australia’s Bio-Forge and WL Zinc Chelate immediately after a stress event to provide nutrients which will help trees recover as quickly as possible.
Step 2—Apply Foli-Zyme to encourage new growth and to further help strong healthy tissue development.
Convenient liquid formulation
Stoller Australia’s range of nutrient products are available in a convenient liquid formulation and easily applied. Contact your local Stoller Australia representative for advice.
Call Stoller 1800 337 835
email
stoller.com.au
See this article in Tree Fruit August 2019
