The finish line is in sight but there are many obstacles before the harvest is in the cool room.
The biggest threat to what your bank balance looks like at the end of the season is not your agent or supermarket buyer; it is the ravages of the weather.
Extreme heat and thunderstorms can turn a bumper crop into jam and juice within hours.
Insurance will take care of major disasters but fruit down-grades due to crop stress from heat, sunburn and disease caused by storm damage like hail, tree rub and superficial insect damage needs to be planned for and managed.
Tried and proven for sunburn and heat protection
There are many fancy imported heat and sunburn protection products on the market these days, but one of the most tried and proven Australian made products for sunburn and heat protection is Crop Block®.
No matter how you slice it, sunburn protection is simply about creating a reflective barrier to reduce heat building in the canopy and on the skin of fruit—Crop Block is the ‘zinc’ on the nose of your crop.
However, as we all know, sunburn protection is not just about applying zinc to the nose, we also need to wear a hat.
Well-functioning crop canopy
A well-functioning crop canopy is the best protection against sun burn and minimising heat build-up.
Products like Stimplex® Crop biostimulant, and SarSil® Potassium silicate, are designed to enhance the stress tolerance of the crop against heat as well as ‘stiffen’ the architecture of the canopy to provide better shading.
Wilted leaves and floppy load bearing branches will cause fruit to be exposed and reduce air movement through the canopy causing heat build-up and increased stress on the crop.
Stimplex & SarSil
Stimplex crop biostimulant enhances the anti-oxidant in plants which in turn reduces the free radicals that damage plant cells and lead to fruit breakdown and leaf shedding.
SarSil adds silica to the cell wall or plants making the cells ‘stiffer’ and hence the plant is more resilient to wilting.
Antagonizer® Trichoderma
Finally, diseases like Botrytis and brown rot are a constant threat to crops late in the season. Spores can splash or drip into tiny superficial wound sites, take hold, and spread like wild fire if conditions become favourable.
The withholding periods of many fungicides limits what can be effectively applied and organic growers are limited to only biological solution like Antagonizer® Trichoderma.
Antagonizer Trichoderma is sprayed into the crop where it colonises the wound site and acts as a natural barrier against infection.
Contact your local OCP rep for further advice or Free call: 1800 634 204
e-mail
For more information, see Tree Fruit Dec 2014
