EXCHANGING INFORMATION & IDEAS FOR HIGH YIELDING APPLE CROPS
News from Technology Exchange Observation Meeting and Conference

In June 2019, RLF held a high-yield apple nutrition technology exchange program and conference in Penglai, Yantai, Shandong.

The meeting consisted of two parts – the first being a demonstration and observation field event, with the second being the apple
nutrition technology exchange conference meeting the following day.

This event attracted approximately 300 local growers, and was acclaimed a great success by those in attendance.

At the demonstration and observation meeting

At the conference and exchange meeting

Experiences from the Demonstration and Observation Event

The first apple orchard on the observation tour was in Yingzili Village, Magezhuang Town.

In the orchard of apple grower Li Changxia, the top of a tree had previously been cut off since it was experiencing bad growth. At that time, it was considered appropriate by the technical experts present to apply RLF crop nutrition products in an effort to save the life of the tree. As a result, the tree was observed to have not only returned to normal this year, but it also was hung with 400 bags, which could attract almost 1000 yuan! Miss Li shared her experience with the application effects of RLF Plant Milk on her apple trees with the observing meeting.

The effect of ‘reviving life from death’ greatly attracted the local farmers’ attentions.

Miss Li sharing the application effects of RLF Plant Milk on her fruit trees

Her Story

The tree was located in low lying terrain with a lot of sand and stones underground, so the growth was poor. As a result, the quality and benefit from the trees declined over time due to their long age and variety.

The treatment program she followed was to furrow inject with RLF Plant Milk followed by a foliar spray of RLF Fruits & Veggies Plus. She found that the application effects included full flower buds, thick and green leaves with the trunk showing signs of new shoot growth forming new branches.

The second demonstration and observation meeting was held in Xinglin Village, Liujiagou Town. The apple grower, Zhang Dejun has been applying RLF crop nutrition products for the past ten years. Mr Zhang told that he had 68 trees in his orchard. Last year 13,800 bags were set and 40,000 yuan was earned. Another 20,000 bags have been set this year. Mr Zhang’s planting experience message was that, the better the fertilisers are, the better the fruits are and the higher the economic benefits are.

The apple tree shown (planted in 1983) bagged 1,300 last year and 1,200 this year

Grower Zhang Dejun shares his fertiliser planting program with the local farmers

Mr Zhang’s Crop Nutrition Program

Fertilisation period Product & Method
Before and
after germination
Furrow inject with RLF Plant Milk High-N at
1.25kg per tree, each time
Budding –
Flowering
Foliar spray with RLF Boron Plus at 800
times dilution
Young fruit
(before bagging)
Foliar spray with RLF Fruits & Veggies Plus at 600 times dilution x three times, and with RLF Calcium Plus at 800 times dilution x three times
Fruit enlargement Foliar spray with RLF Fruits & Veggies Plus at 600 times dilution, and with RLF Potassium Plus and Calcium Plus at 800 times dilution
Colour-changing Furrow inject with RLF Plant Milk High-K at
1.25kg per tree, each time

Notes from the Technology Exchange & Conference Event

Dr Mike Lu, General Manager of RLF China, along with Wang Shuying, General Manager of Yantai Runyuan Fertilizer Service Centre, Shi Naigui, Director of Fruit Tree Production Technology Guidance Station, Wang Fengbo, of Top Ten Agricultural and Technological Practical Experts of Apple in China, together with more than 300 local apple growers attended the meeting.

What follows is a precis of the addresses given by the keynote speakers.

Dr Mike Lu said in his opening address “that as Australia’s largest producer and supplier of multi-element liquid fertilisers, RLF is committed to providing creative and modern crop nutrition programs and practices for agricultural growers around the world. RLF has cooperated with the Yantai Runyuan Company for the past ten years. After a lot of experimentation and promotion work on the apple crop’s balanced nutrition, it has achieved good results with the high quality and high yield of apples”.

He went on to say “that the Apple Nutrition Technology Conference is being held so that experiences about the successful RLF nutrition programs can be shared, so that more growers can grow high-quality apples and improve economic efficiency”.

Wang Shuying, General Manager of Yantai Runyuan Fertilizer Service Centre, said “that what every fertiliser enterprise should do is work to increase production and income for growers. In the early stage, we worked with RLF technicians to test the indicators of fruit trees using an RLF nutrition program, and obtained many farmers’ recognition of their application effects”.

She added, “that through this conference, we hope that more farmers can learn of advanced management experiences and planting technologies, because the more people know about RLF products, the more they will benefit”.

Qiu Mengbin, RLF’s Senior Technical Manager gave technical report for the participants and pointed out the phenomenon of the lack of medium and trace elements in most soils in China. He then summarised his address with some of the important characteristics of RLF crop nutrition products.

  • Biochemical chelation of the various nutrients necessary for plants to be
    provided with adequate and balanced nutrition,
  • It is in liquid form that perfectly solves the problem of elemental antagonism,
  • The double-channel transportation technology has high nutrient
    absorption efficiency,
  • It is a safe, pure nutritional preparation and free of hormones.
Shi Naigui, Director of Fruit Tree Production Technology Guidance Station addressed growers on how to improve apple quality by using new fruit tree nutrition management schemes based on local planting conditions

Shi Naigui, Director of Fruit Tree Production
Technology Guidance Station

Wang Fengbo, representing the Top Ten Agricultural and Technological Practical Experts of Apple in China, introduced the new challenges and solutions for Apple crops in the
Yantai area.

Wang Fengbo, Top Ten Agricultural and Technological
Practical Experts of Apple in China