EXCELLENT RESULTS FOR SUGAR ORANGE
Bigger, Healthier and Sweeter because of RLF Crop Nutrition Fertilisers

Sugar Orange grower Li Jiaxian of Shatou Town, Cangwu County, Wuzhou City, Guangxi, applied an RLF nutrition program to his 20mu (1.33 hectare) orchard this year.

The following story outlines his trees’ growth, development and subsequent crop outcomes. These results are excellent.

The RLF Specialty Fertiliser Program

Timing Products & Rates Applied
Germination Stage Ultra 12
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Budding Stage Ultra 12
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Boron Plus
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Test Area 600mu (40 hectares)
Budding Stage Boron Plus
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Young Fruit Stage Ultra 12
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Calcium Plus
1:000 Foliar application to the leaf
Timing Products & Rates Applied
Filling Stage Ultra 12
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Calcium Plus
1:000 Foliar application to the leaf
Plant Milk High-N
1:300 Fertigation
Filling Stage Ultra 12
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Calcium Plus
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Plant Milk High-K
1:300 Fertigation
Ripening Stage Boron Plus
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf
Potassium Boost
1:1000 Foliar application to the leaf

Observation of the orchard showed that the fruit trees treated with the RLF nutritional program showed thick and dark green leaves, with uniform fruit size, no malformed fruit and overall balanced growth.

Once carefully counted, the average number of fruit-bearing trees in the demonstration orchard without hollow fruit was 146.

Subsequently, the RLF technical staff randomly selected some of the sugar oranges from both the Control and RLF demonstration orchards and measured them from three different perspectives – appearance, sugar content and fruit weight.

The Comparison on Fruit Size and Colour (Appearance)

The randomly picked sugar oranges are all reasonably uniform in size, however from their appearance, the RLF-treated fruits are smooth, evenly coloured and brighter in colour.

The Comparison on Fruit Weight

Although the size of both sets of fruits were almost the same, the weight of the Control fruits were 0.44 jin (0.22kg), and the weight of the RLF-treated fruits were 0.48 jin (0.24kg). This is a considerable difference, and indicates that the dry matter content of the RLF-treated fruits increased and that yield was higher.

The Comparison on Sugar Content

Three of the fruits were selected for sugar measurement. The Control sugar content ranged from 10 to 11 whilst the RLF-treated fruit were all the same at 13; which overall was 1.8 higher than the Control crop.

Mr Li also told the RLF staff that he had been contacted by fruit merchants who said they would buy his sugar oranges for 3.5 yuan (0.74 AUD) per jin for normal size fruit and 2 yuan (0.42 AUD) per jin for small fruit. Therefore, the total income of his 20mu (1.33 hectare) orchard is 462,000 yuan (97,438 AUD). Even once the 120,000 yuan (25,309 AUD) of inputs are subtracted, he still has 340,000 yuan (71,708 AUD) in financial benefit. In contrast, the purchase price of the Control fruit was about 2 yuan (0.42 AUD) per jin for normal size fruit and 1.5 yuan (0.32 AUD) per jin for small fruit.

Mr Li is understandably very satisfied with the application effects of RLF’s crop nutrition products on his sugar orange orchard.

Mr Li in his Sugar Orange Orchard

Summary

Through the demonstrated comparison of the three aspects of fruit colour, fruit weight and sugar content, it can be concluded that the RLF nutrition program makes the sugar orange fruit surface coloured 7-10 days ahead of the Control crop. Effectively this improves fruit sweetness and quality, and increases production and income in the same variety, the same age and orchards with the same level of management in every respect apart from the fertiliser program. This is the huge advantage that RLF crop nutrition gives.