Over 100 fruit growers and agronomists had the opportunity to gain an insight into the latest developments and products that have potential to bring about cost savings and yield benefits at Fruit Science Live 2018.

The event was held at the FAST (Fruit Advisory Services Team LLP) headquarters in Kent, and co-hosted by ICL and BASF, who led tours around trial plots of top and soft fruit, with presentations from team members along the way.

Richard Collins, ICL technical sales manager and Rob Cook, site supervisor from FAST, held one of the sessions, speaking about a set of second-year trials with innovative wetting agent – H2Flo.

“We’re testing whether the product can be used to make irrigation savings. So, the equivalent of 27ml of water per week was applied to a control plot of apple trees, while the plot treated with H2Flo only received 75% of this volume,” says Richard.

“The results have already shown that there is no yield reduction when reducing irrigation levels, which could save growers a significant amount of money. We’ve also seen larger fruit produced with no implications for dry matter content when using H2Flo.”

BASF’s Matthew Goodson was on hand to speak with visitors and showcase the latest SDHI chemistry for prevention of powdery mildew in strawberry crops.

“We also presented recent trial results on two options for scab control – Sercadis and Delan Pro, and gave a teaser on the next generation of products, soon to join the portfolio,” says Matthew.

Finally, visitors learned how pH Low fertilisers significantly increased plant growth and leaf area of blueberries, mentioning that fruit yield is expected to be higher when harvested.