When it comes to harvesting kiwis, having a quality crop that reaches harvest at the same time is what growers work towards--particularly this year. “After the season we’ve had, this one will be a bit of a challenge around labor. Growers are really going to focus on their timing. There’s going to be a big push to make sure timing is done right,” says Gary Geurts, business development manager formerly of Apata at the Kiwi Quality Summit hosted by Hazel Technologies Inc.
Indeed, to achieve that critical uniformity amongst kiwifruit, many growers often turn to products such as Hydrogen Cyanamide, also known as Hi-Cane, a plant growth regulator that helps budbreak on the fruit happen uniformly. It’s not the only product on the market tackling this job--Advance Gold from Lonza NZ is a salicylic acid-based alternative bud break for example.
However growers at the summit also note the important role of pre-harvest technology to help not only improve budbreak but also flowering results. As noted in the summit, growers use this technology to improve the timing of these applied budbreak enhancers. This includes technology such as Hazel Trex from Hazel Technologies.
Kelly Dietz of Hazel Technologies hosted the Kiwifruit Quality Summit.
Listening to plants
“We’re using the technology to shine a light on the problem we don’t know the answers to. This technology tells us what the plants are saying rather than what the temperature is saying about the plants,” says Cam Clayton, technical and innovation manager of DMS Progrowers.
As the panel noted, it’s a question that comes up often from kiwi growers: what timing do we use as to when to apply the spray? “When growers do spray, the results aren’t seen until after the fact. But with Hazel Trex, plants tell us what they’re doing and where they are at,” says Dwayne Farrington, technical manager of Farmlands Co-Operative. The technology is in essence a preharvest test to help growers figure out timing management of their orchards.
As Clayton added, timing of bud break applications can be murky in other ways. “The labels for these sprays state to put it on at a certain timing relative to natural bud break. But we haven’t actually seen natural bud break because it happens after application,” he says. “And because we’re always using these enhancers, we only see enhanced bud break. Growers have little insight as to what natural bud break is in their orchards.”
Top row left to right: Kelly Dietz, Dwayne Farrington. Bottom row left to right: Cam Clayton, Gary Geurts.
How the technology can help
Clayton does outline how the technology helped last year with an under-performing orchard as an example. “This was as far as flowering was concerned. It was a good and healthy orchard,” he says, adding that because of the orchard’s size, it was having to split its spray applications into three different timing periods.
The Hazel Trex technology was used to pinpoint the timing of the spray application and in fact confirmed that the spray was being applied at the correct time--thus, ruling out any bud break spray issues that could be contributing to performance.
This is why using a tool such as Hazel Trex, which was introduced to New Zealand-based Zespri International approximately a year ago, can help growers in what is shaping up to possibly be a challenging season.
“We’re under a lot of pressure these days with labor shortages, wages, etc. so every step we can do to minimize increased labor is important,” says Farrington.
For more information:
Jaime Kedrowski
Hazel Technologies
Tel: +1 (559) 321-2146
[email protected]
www.hazeltechnologies.com
