The management of ethylene in fruit production is vital for ensuring optimal fruit development, ripening and post harvest management. It has a significant effect on major fruit quality parameters such as fruit firmness, Brix levels, marketable yield and post harvest parameters such as shelf life.
As can be seen from the Plant Hormonal Cycle diagram below, ethylene is produced naturally by plants during fruit ripening and plant maturity. However, production of excess ethylene during earlier plant developmental stages, due to plant stress, can lead to premature fruit ripening and early senescence which can affect fruit quality at harvest and during post harvest handling, packaging and cool chain transfer.
The Stoller Technology used in the production process of HoldPlus provides a non-synthetic tool for counteracting and reducing the synthesis of ethylene in the plant and fruits. Controlling and minimizing the presence of ethylene in the plant and fruits allows for the regulation, or delay, in the ripening and senescence processes of fruit tissues due to the natural ripening process.
HoldPlus is a liquid fertilizer composed of chelated cobalt salts and molybdenum. The Stoller Technology used in the manufacturing process of HoldPlus ensures a unique formula for counteracting any adverse plant stress related issues and promoting balanced crop development.
Maintaining fruits on the tree for longer can be beneficial in order to aim for better market prices or to give the fruits longer to ripen adequately, resulting in better fruit quality. However, fruit fall is a major and recurring issue in Cherry orchards “June drop”, leading to significant yield loss.
From trials done with FAST in 2020 on the ability of HoldPlus to reduce Cherry “June drop” it was found that trees treated with applications of 2.5 L/ha at 6, 4 and 2 week intervals prior to picking reduced fruit drop by about 17% compared to the control, as well as significantly increasing fruit Brix levels, fruit firmness and improving fruit colouring and marketable yield.
HoldPlus improves the fruit’s quality, due to the longer period they can ripen naturally on the tree. This enables all the necessary nutrients and sugars to be readily translocated into the fruit.
Stoller are running comprehensive crop trials at the WET Centre, NIAB, on strawberries in order to measure the effects of the HoldPlus in counteracting the effects of plant ethylene production and improving in-field quality parameters such as even fruit ripening and colouring, maintaining fruit firmness, and enhancing harvest and post-harvest quality parameters such as fruit firmness, Brix levels, higher premium quality fruit pack-out and extended shelf life.
We want to help you, contact us:
Bernard Courtney
Technical & Sales Responsible
bcourtney@stoller.es
+44 (0) 744 222 7687
stollereurope.com/en