Focus on fruit with the Yara's fruit and horticulture specialist Giz Gaskin
Keep up to date with the latest fruit nutrition and fertigation information with this advice from Yara's fruit and horticulture specialist Giz Gaskin.
Foliar micronutrients reduce crop stress
02 April 2020
Wet years bring an increased likelihood of softer leafy growth. More nitrogen less calcium tends to increase this situation, to the benefit of sap drinking insects like aphid. Aphid take advantage of the soft cell walls piercing leaf with the proboscis and extracting the sap. Stronger leaf resists aphid better, in a normal year the aphid would be seen on the newly emerging leaf as they are much softer. Maintaining a good micronutrient regime on crops can limit the impacts of softer growth leading to decreased pest pressure.
As the weather is set to warm up from a saturated soil condition, this year will become as last year, ideal for fungal growth. Fungal pathogens are much hardier of anaerobic soil conditions, needing only warmer temperatures to begin their cycle. Plant site of infection roots, crows and lower stem will be softer in spring due to saturated soil. Combine this with softer leafy growth higher up and the fungal pathogens can land anywhere and have an impact. Expect mildew (downy more than powdery), botrytis and phytophthora (root rot) to be issues this year. The key to these is good husbandry and trying to break up the micro climate which these pathogens love. Foliar feeds like YaraVita SENIPHOS and YaraVita THIOTRAC 300 can further help to keep suppressing fungal pathogens by breaking the microclimate at leaf & fruit level, while maintaining nutrient uptake. Foliar feeding reduces the demand on the roots reliving root stress as soil condition return to a more normal state. As the roots need to get back to better root condition, feeding foliar YaraVita BIOTRAC can help reduce plant stress while at the same time add root stimulation growth from the organic plant enzymes contained with in YaraVita BIOTRAC.
The benefit of foliar fed calcium in wet years
30 March 2020
After a wet winter, with heavy rainfall following flooding from last autumn, both soil and many pots grown fruit plants have been under saturated conditions for all the winter. The three-week forecast for the UK moving forward is less rainfall than previous years but some rain is still expected and the start of season is looking dry and slightly windier than normal. Given the weather outlook, the application of foliar fed calcium would be advantageous.
In grape and cherry crops in a high-water year, fruit issues are seen with ‘splitting’ in the fruit after fruit swell pre full ripening. This issue in both crops is caused by the same physiological condition of too much water uptake and lack of calcium uptake. Calcium is a key nutrient for strong leaf and fruit growth, its key component of cell walls.
Calcium is an immobile nutrient and is difficult for roots to take up under saturated conditions, as highly mobile nutrients are far more available to root. Further, soil microbes which would normally aid the breakdown of calcium for root uptake perform badly in saturated water due to lack of oxygen. Given the lack of uptake of calcium from root level in wet years, building and keeping good leaf is essential. The leaf can in a wet year provide both functions of photosynthesis and nutrient uptake from foliar feeding of immobile nutrients like calcium. It is important to remember that leaf must be free from deposits if it is to continue with good photosynthesis. Building up calcium on leaf will limit the ability of the leaf to perform its primary function. Therefore, the efficacy of the calcium feed used must be correctly formulated for an even spread. This is particularly important in wet years, when plants can succumb to stress more easily.
As discussed above, this year crops will need foliar application to support nutrient uptake reliving root pressure. The coverage of leaf needed to be uniform to aid efficacy and more importantly reduce deposits building up, blocking photosynthesis. All YaraVita foliar feeds are tested and formulated thoroughly to make sure they perform through the application machinery and upon contact with leaf spread uniformly, with no build up. This has been demonstrated in on cherry using the Yara foliar feed of YaraVita STOPIT.
