In the real world we inhabit, even the best of growers still have that ‘problem crop’ each season, which doesn’t have a pest or disease problem but just fails to perform as expected and is poor quality or uneven; perhaps it just needs that bit of extra TLC. What makes the difference is having the eye for detail to spot these issues early and take the right remedial action quickly. This can make the difference between a crop that ends up in the skip and one that gets turned around to meet the required standard.
Hortifeeds offer a wide range of products to help growers overcome some of the issues that can occur from time to time, even with the highest quality of production.
Poor root establishment?
Solution: HortiPhyte
The highly mobile potassium phosphite in HortiPhyte increases root and shoot initiation and development supporting healthy and productive growth. Phosphite supports energy transfer in the plant, relieving ‘hidden phosphorous hunger’ in fast growth stages, and so increases root production. It also stimulates and supports natural plant defence mechanisms because natural phytoalexin production is maximised when ideal nutrition is provided.
Poor calcium mobility?
Solution: AmētrosTM
Calcium is essential for cell wall and membrane structure. It is taken up by plants with water in the transpiration stream, unlike most other nutrients. This makes the distribution of calcium within the plant very dependent on the flow of water from the roots to the leaves and growing tips. Use of the unique CaT™ Technology contained in AmētrosTM improves localised calcium movement in tissues such as fruit, increasing yield, fruit quality and shelf life.
Uneven wetting of growing media?
Solution: HortiHydrate Pro
HortiHydrate Pro lowers the surface tension of all types of growing media, allowing uniform wetting of the moisture profile. Even moisture profiles are essential to allow the plants to utilise all of the available growing media and nutrients, leading to a uniform crop. Optimising growing conditions can reduce water run-off and evaporation, lowering production costs.
Foliage needs ‘greening-up’?
Solution: HortiCron Evergreen
With generous levels of nitrogen magnesium and iron, combined with other macro and micro elements, HortiCron Evergreen is an ideal fertiliser for rapid green-up. It has all the right ingredients to increase chlorophyll production and hence improve leaf colour. HortiCron Evergreen also contains slow release nitrogen to provide sustained nutrition over a number of weeks, so there is both a short and long term benefit in leaf colour and growth.
High EC in growing media?
Solution: HortiFlush
In soft fruit production maintaining correct levels of EC and pH are vital to ensure suitable fruit quality throughout the season. EC levels must be monitored and kept within tight parameters. Excessive EC levels and built- up salts can be removed with the aid of HortiFlush. Its acidic formulation ensures the growing media returns to optimum pH and EC levels to improve nutrient uptake and fruit quality. HortiFlush contains organic complexing agents such as humic and fulvic acids to help remove excess fertiliser salts, and advanced wetting agents to improve irrigation evenness throughout the growing media.
Trace element or magnesium deficiencies?
Solution: HortiChel Compound Foliar TE Mix
When a trace element deficiency is seen in a crop, early intervention is vital to restore the required balance of nutrients as soon as possible. Which trace element is deficient? – well that’s the key question! Under most normal circumstances if one trace element is in short supply it indicates that others will probably also be at low levels. By the time samples have been taken to identify the problem, sent to a lab and the results returned and a suitable treatment product is found, the problem will usually be very much worse. It’s far more straightforward and cost effective to apply HortiChel Compound Foliar TE Mix as soon as a problem is seen to provide a package of trace elements to combat micro nutrient deficiencies.
It contains magnesium, iron, and manganese, which are vital in chlorophyll production, plus zinc which is essential in enzyme production and systemic disease resistance. Sulphur is also key for plant metabolism and plays a role in photosynthesis, overall energy metabolism and carbohydrate production.
Please contact your Hortifeeds Regional Sales Manager for more information on these, or any of our other products
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