Central European countries have recently experienced unprecedented frost episodes, a particularly delicate situation for stone fruit growers whose trees were in full bloom at the time of the events.
Growers in France report a specific frost in early March in addition to several successive nights of -4 to -6/-8 degrees Celsius from the last week of March to mid-April.
Due to the intensity and the period covered, the frosts produced dramatic and historical consequences in France, where losses of national production of almost 90% for cherries and almost 100% for apricots and plums were estimated.
That is why the French government will implement a special procedure to help producers deal with this historic agricultural disaster.
Despite these difficult times, growers in the Loire Valley in central France managed to reduce the damage caused by frost thanks to the early applications of BioForge and FlowerPower.
By combining Stoller technologies applied to the control of stress processes due to excessive ethylene production and by reinforcing the formation of reproductive tissues (flowers and embryonic fruits), producers have seen the effects of frost stress minimized in their orchards.
Protection against oxidative effects resulting from stress and cell activation of new tissues must be programmed from the beginning of the stress period and repeated as many times as necessary during it to meet the needs of the plants during these key moments.
Some growers sent us photos showing how, thanks Stoller’s technology, they could manage to save part of the flowers of an apricot tree, or how they managed an apricot tree to maintain their fruits viable despite the stress suffered.