After an unusual season with sudden extreme heat events, growers have recognized even more the need to protect crops against sunburn and heat stress.
Estimates of crop loss vary, however, claims of almost 50% damage have been made. In many cases crops have literally been cooked before they’re picked.
As pressure on grower margins increases, it is more important than ever to harvest the highest possible percentage of quality fruit from every hectare and megalitre of water.
Improving pack-out percentages is one of the most effective ways to improve farm profitability.
Surround® crop protectant
Surround® crop protectant reduces crop damage caused by sunburn and heat stress when used according to the product label.
Surround is made from natural Kaolin that is refined and processed to provide an optimum formulation for protection against sunburn and heat stress.
As a co-development that included the United States Department of Agriculture, Surround was first trialed in Australia in 1998. Ongoing research has been conducted over many years with local distributor, AgNova Technologies, and this has further refined its use in a wide range of crops.
Production process
The production process for Surround is unique and includes a step known as calcining, whereby the kaolin is heated in a giant kiln to alter the crystal shape to a 3-dimensional highly, reflective structure.
Only Surround contains this calcined Kaolin, and as the latest data confirms, this ensures that the product provides the greatest level of radiation reflection.
Effectiveness
A paper was published in July of this year by Dr D. Michael Glenn of the US Department of Agriculture, and Dr Jose Antonio Yuri of the Pome Fruit Research Center in Talca, Chile entitled, Measuring the impact of Heat (IR), visible light / PAR & Ultraviolet (UV).
The paper confirmed that it is the combination of high levels of radiation in the infrared, visible light and ultraviolet light ranges that causes the greatest solar damage in apples.
Hence, for a product to be effective as a sunscreen, it must reflect all three types of radiation.
The paper highlighted that Surround does this effectively, and that the greater the thickness of the Surround coating, the better the result.
Proven in Australia
Peter Barrows of US-based TKI, the owners of Surround, has worked with Surround since its creation.
During a visit to Australia in early October this year, Peter confirmed that,
“Surround has a long and proven track record in Australia. There is a solid base of evidence from growers and researchers that Surround consistently performs extremely well.
This latest independent data confirms what we have long known, namely that Surround significantly outperforms others products.
There appears to be little or no local data to support the claims of the other products, whereas Surround has been proven time and again.
Over the years, some growers have tried other products, but have come back to Surround. They did not get the results they expected from the others products, starting from the first application when they were not clearly visible on the crop.”
For more information contact AgNova Technologies phone 03 9899 8100 or www.agnova.com.au
See this article in Tree Fruit, October 2013
