Thinning, water and nutrients, presentation at WP meeting in Bologna

This presentation gives an overview of the 2016 and ongoing pcfruit activities in in the areas of thinning as well as water and nutrient management in different fruit species. Results of an apple thinning trial with Brevis applied at different times revealed the impact of the timing of the Brevis application with a risk for over-thinning under extreme weather conditions. All tested apple cultivars showed a clear dose response to Brevis thinning. Due to the heavy spring frost In Belgium in 2017 (19 to 20 April), the general advice to fruit growers in 2017 is to not perform chemical thinning unless to use 6-BA for weak thinning.
The existing PWARO service system for irrigation and fertigation in pear has been extended to sweet cherry and was further supported by satellite image analysis of the orchards. In a new nitrogen focused demonstration project of pcfruit that started in 2017 the aim is to maintain yield and pear quality when lowering nitrogen input by 20 to 40%. The lack of response of strawberry to nitrogen fertilization was largely explained by the levels of nitrogen mineralization, while it was also shown that excessive irrigation of strawberry does not result in higher yield. In blackberry, the hypothesis of a low calcium (Ca) level causing high sensitivity to skin rupturing of the berries was tested by increasing the Ca concentration in the fertigation solution during growth as well as near harvest.

Documents

Thinning, water and nutrients pcfruit Eufruit WP5 meeting Bologna 20170601 () presentation

Details

Activity type

Participation in other stakeholder meeting

Activity work package

Secure sustainable fruit production

Activity number

PCFRUIT-WP5-A44

Activity contact

Serge Remy
pcfruit
Fruittuinweg 1
3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Tel.: +32 (0)11 69 71 50
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.pcfruit.be

Activity partner

PCFRUIT

Activity country

Belgium

Last edit

18-10-2017