Fruit Focus 2015: Advances in agronomy backed by expert advice

Fruit growers striving to improve yields and quality will have unrivalled access to the latest agronomy at Fruit Focus 2015.

Novel developments in pest and disease control, substrates, varieties and fertilisers will be on show across the event, backed up by expert advice to help growers optimise margins while meeting demands of their most discerning customers.

Fruit Focus takes place at East Malling Research, Kent on Wednesday 22 July. It will host over 120 key suppliers to the fruit sector and more than 1200 visitors for across the UK are expected to attend.

Pest, disease and stress control

Bayer CropScience’s crown rot fungicide Fenomenal (fenamidone + fosetyl-aluminium) has recently been approved for application on strawberries via drip irrigation, especially valuable on tabletop and substrate-grown crops which are difficult to drench.

Bayer is also finding new uses for its biological product Serenade ASO. Its key role is in Botrytis IPM programmes, but it is showing very useful activity against powdery mildew in strawberries and the potential to limit the spread of fire blight in pears, Phomopsis in blackcurrants and various diseases in vines. Bayer also has a range of new biological developments in the pipeline.

BASF will show a novel solution for codling moth control in apples and pears using two complementary IPM techniques.

Small dispensers containing pheromone mating disruptors RAK3 for codling moth and RAK 4 for leaf rollers are placed in orchards at petal fall, before first moth flight, offering season-long disruption of egg laying.

Complementing this, pathogenic nematode product Nemasys C is applied to tree bark when codling moth larvae are exiting fruit and moving into loose bark to pupate.

Agrovista is launching its new fireblight early warning service, the latest addition to its cloud-based pest and disease forecasting service, Growers Choice Interactive (GCI).

The fireblight software calculates the likelihood of infection on blossom and new growth based on live data collected from 40 fruit-specific weather stations across the country, as well as likely bacterial contamination and growth based on temperature and relative humidity/rainfall. This enables preventative or antagonistic sprays to be applied more accurately.

Western Flower Thrips remain a major problem in strawberry production, and growing resistance to conventional crop protection products continues to exacerbate this problem, says Syngenta.

Staff will be on hand to discuss recent published work that shows adding Syngenta Bioline’s ThripLine to sticky roller traps gave significant reductions in the numbers of adult thrips in flowers, as well as improved fruit quality.

EMR will feature a project studying Apple Replant Disease (ARD) evolution and rootstock interaction (ARDERI). The aim is to provide information about ARD with a view to developing new management strategies and input for breeding programmes.

BlocCade offers a novel approach to sealing wounds made after pruning and is being introduced to the market by Fargo. It is a physical coating to protect against bacterial and fungal infections, such as fruit tree canker and dead arm disease. It can be applied by knapsack sprayer, orchard sprayer, or a sprayer device on Felco-19 pruning shears.

AHDB Horticulture will present information about two new research projects it is funding through its studentship scheme.

One is using hyperspectral imaging to identify differences in growth in glasshouse-based strawberry crops to predict the onset of stress before it becomes evident to the human eye. This could provide an early warning system for growers.

The other project is investigating the effects of pre-colonisation of strawberry runners and tray plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to manage Verticillium wilt by boosting the plant’s defence mechanism.

Substrates

A new wetting and water conservation agent for coir, H2CoCo, is being launched by Cocogreen. It is said to save growers valuable time by enabling quick and total wetting of the substrate, maximising irrigation efficiency and improving yields.

A 1m growbag can be rehydrated and ready to plant within an hour, compared with the usual two- to three-day set up time. Its blend of surfactants also reduces overall irrigation due to less run-off, especially during initial wetting.

Varieties

Wholesale tree nursery Frank Matthews has two new cherry varieties from Pico available for planting this winter. Starblush and Stardust are white fleshed, large, and heart shaped. They are self-fertile and pick mid- and mid-to-late season respectively.

Information is also available on other stone fruit developments including apricots, mirabelles and late-picking plums.

Fertilisers

Two innovative new foliar fertilizers - Calcium+ and Total+ - will be shown by ICL Specialty Fertilizers (formerly Everris).

Calcium+ contains a blend of calcium plus amino acids, plant sugars, lignates and surfactant to facilitate absorption through the leaf epidermis. Total+ is a new balanced nutrient and plant biostimulant formulated to provide targeted stress relief.

Two new Lallemand products also feature. Cilus Plus contains plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and IntraCell is a powerful osmoprotectant that defends plant cells against stress.

A new silicon nutrient for foliar and irrigated application to increase the strength, growth and health of crops is being launched by Engage Agro Europe.

Sion contains a unique form of silicon which boosts cell strength and increases speed of growth. It can also increase nutrient activity, alleviate abiotic and biotic stresses, and increase the resistance of plants to pathogenic pressure, says the company.

Soil health

East Malling Research is focusing on soil and the multiple roles it plays in sustainable food production and the ecosystem. EMR will advocate for sustainable soil management in this, the International Year of Soils.

Scientists at EMR estimate that soil expertise in the arable sector is a generation ahead of the perennial fruit industry, where replant disease, nutrient management and compaction all warrant urgent new research work. EMR’s stand will showcase some of the key elements that make up soil and what soil does for growers.

Tree growth

Agrii is investigating a simple technique to save apple growers the cost of planting twin-stem trees.

Such trees offer more even growth, better quality fruit and less management overall, but because they are budded twice, they are more expensive. Agrii is trialling a way of achieving the same result that growers could do themselves, using the Annaglo clone of Gala.

The main stem has been cut down immediately after planting to leave two feathers at the right height. The work will investigate whether the complex agronomy modern orchards receive will maximise these trees’ potential and avoid the need to bud twice.

Frost protection

Shur Farms Frost Protection is attending Fruit Focus 2015 to provide information on how to manage cold air accumulation and the resulting frost pockets in vineyards and orchards.

The company has over 20 years of experience in frost protection sciences and cold air removal technology.