FertiGlobal Crop Management Program in California
Time for Navel-raising
Total Crop Management is the FertiGlobal approach: the acknowledgement that a crop that wants for nothing is a healthy crop. And without a limiting factor, a healthy crop can put all its energy into yield.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when talking about ‘teamwork’?
Your first thought is probably along the lines of ‘interaction between colleagues’, or ‘collaboration’, or ‘working towards a common goal’. And you wouldn’t be wrong.
But why can’t we have teamwork between products, too?
That’s often the thinking that guides FertiGlobal’s research and development team. Most recently, they’ve put it into action with a Total Crop Management programme that focuses on the Navel orange.
Navel oranges – generally considered ‘eating oranges’ – are one of the world’s most popular citrus fruits, with around 50 different varieties. Originally discovered as a mutation in Brazil, in 1820, the fruit really is named after its similarity to a navel: a genetic mutation causes a small secondary fruit to grow within the main fruit, causing a characteristic hole at the blossom-stem end. Fortuitously, the same mutation also makes the fruit seedless, adding to its appeal.
First introduced into California in the 1870s, the popularity of the Navel orange grew and grew. Today, as one of the world’s preferred varieties of orange, it’s cultivated on every continent. But California remains its powerhouse location. According to California Citrus Mutual, the sector’s representative body, nearly half of the state’s total citrus area – 111,000 acres – is planted with Navel oranges.
Into this dynamic sector comes FertiGlobal, with its Total Crop Management approach. We were approached by an independent research organisation to conduct trials with three FertiGlobal products, in a bid to see how our innovative and unique technologies could boost three vital metrics associated with citrus-growing success.
- Fruit Set: Citrus bloom is profuse. The average adult tree can produce up to 200,000 flowers a year. Clearly no tree can maintain and develop that many fruits; only around 1-5% of flowers will lead to harvestable fruits. But it’s important to optimise that number.
- Fruit Size: Most growers will see this as the most important factor for maximising returns. It comes down to consumer preference: smaller fruits (below 65mm) are more difficult to sell than large fruit (above 72mm).
What’s more, crop load – the number of fruit set – is inversely related to fruit size. - Yield: No explanation needed. Whatever crop they’re growing, every grower wants to get the best yields.
The researchers combined three of FertiGlobal’s key technologies, focusing the intended effects on delivering a healthier crop with increased yield and higher quality:
- EnNuVi combines nutrients with bioactive polyphenols (nutrient polyphenolic molecule), going beyond nutrition to provide both a physical barrier and bioactive plant defences together letting the plant use the energy for more production and better fruit quality. Semia was the chosen product.
- Foliarel uses boron to boost the effects of plant nutrients, as well as focusing specifically on flower fertility and pollen viability, ensuring high fruit set. Here, OK was proposed.
- Foliflo features microparticle nutrition: a suspension of <10µm and <20µm, they’re optimised for plant uptake while assuring growers of very low phytotoxicity. For the trials, Nixi was applied.
“We had fantastic results with your program.”
That was the feedback from Sawtooth Ag Research, a leading agricultural research company based in California, following a 2022 trial. The company seeks out innovative crop production solutions, conducting field trials and experiments through collaborations with farmers and other industry partners.
FertiGlobal’s products were of particular interest: Sawtooth focuses on sustainability and efficiency, in a bid to optimise crop yields and quality.
The results speak for themselves. On a crop of Navel, cv Thompson Improved, just look at the specific metrics:
Weight: Semia/OK/Nixi programme
Bins: Semia/OK/Nixi programme
Grower return: Semia/OK/Nixi programme
These results followed applications of the three ‘teamwork’ products at the following timings and rates:
- Solo application of Semia: petal fall (13.7fl oz/acre, 1l/ha)
- Tank-mixed application of OK (0.45lbs/acre, 0.5kg/ha) + Nixi (20.5fl oz/ac, 1kg/ha) at 30 and 60 days following Semia
- Solo application of OK every 30 days (0.9lbs/ac, 1kg/ha)
We were delighted, not only to have such reassuring results but also with the very positive feedback from an independent research outfit. It’s further encouragement to our team that their ambitions to support plant health and productivity are, literally, bearing fruit.
For more information about finding the right Total Crop Management approach for your crop, don’t hesitate to get in touch – either with your local FertiGlobal distributor, or here through the website.
