In Southeast China, during February each year it is the Inflorescence Maturation Stage for pomelos.
RLF’s Technical Team visited the main pomelo producing areas in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province and found that the trees had many spring shoots, but fewer flower buds. This left the growers at a loss with what to do.
Because of injury to the trees due to freezing, and the prolonged drought in January of this year, the sweet pomelo trees were weakened. Flower bud differentiation was also affected and the deformed flowers were in far greater numbers than the previous year.
March and April of each year are the critical periods for flowering, pollination and fruit preservation for this citrus crop. An excellent flower is an essential guarantee for developing good fruit.
The RLF Team promptly conducted a demonstration trial using Fruits and Veggies Plus + an Amino acids product to promote flower organ development.
The ‘Promote Flower Program’
Trial Location | Gaosi Town, Jiaoling County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province | ||
Trial Crop | Pomelo | ||
Grower | Mr Tang | ||
Trial Crop Nutrition Program |
Application Date | Products and Application Method |
|
Control | 27th February 2021 | Potassium dihydrogen phosphate + organic water-soluble fertiliser, sprayed on the leaf | |
RLF-treated | 27th February 2021 | Fruits & Veggies Plus 1-litre + amino acid fertiliser + 1000-litres water, sprayed on the leaf |
Observations on the Return Visit 11th March 2021
After the treatment of conventional foliar nutrition, the number of inflorescences was more petite in the Control area, with an average of six inflorescences per plant. There were still a lot of spring shoots in trees without flower buds.
The proportion of flowers in the RLF-treated Trial area was higher than that in Control, with an average of 20 sequences of flowers per tree. Further, there was not still an abundance of spring shoots.
The Demonstration Trial achieved an expected outcome. It showed that RLF, which indicated that RLF Fruits & Veggies Plus had a positive impact on inducing flower bud morphological differentiation after the occurrence of a tree freezing injury.
This significant demonstration has also gained the farmer’s strong recognition and helped him understand how a good crop nutrition program can have better outcomes.
The Projected Results
According to the inflorescence situation at this time, the yield of 6 inflorescence/plant in the Control area would only be about 21kg if two fruits were hung on each inflorescence and one fruit was 1.75kg (estimated weight).
However, in the RLF-treated area, with the average number of flowers being 20 species/plant, the yield of one pomelo tree is estimated to be about 70kg, if the exact same calculation of 2 fruits per species and 1.75kg fruit per species.
The benefits are undeniable.
Average flower numbers per plant |
Fruit number per flower |
Estimated fruit weight (kg/per fruit) |
Estimated Yield (kg/per tree) |
|
Control | 6 | 2 | 1.75 | 21 |
RLF-treated | 20 | 2 | 1.75 | 70 |
Following the trial and upon a return visit, there were more flowers in the RLF-treated area.
This RLF ‘Promote Flower Program’ effectively repaired the damage to the frozen tree body, promoted more flower buds and recovered the orchard’s losses. This certainly had a positive influence.