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.
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.