A reminder to growers as why they may be having issues with Chlorosis

Last week I witnessed crops with severe chlorosis.  It was on plants that were at full load and harvesting.  The weather in April and May was ideal for greenhouse crops.  This has had an effect on the size of the fruit, a positive impact, however as the weather quickly changed and we are on the shortest day the crops are now impacted by this higher than usual crop load.  Plants were thinning and struggling with the high crop load.  To make matters worse, due to low prices, growers in general were leaving the fruit on the plants longer in the hope ‘next week’ the price would improve.  My word of advice, harvest normally, get the fruit of the plant and relieve the plant.

The risk with leaving the fruit on the plants will come back to bite as it will severely impact on production in August. The flowers that are setting now are going to be on a weak truss, the pruning will have to match the strength of the plant and the light levels.  The trusses that are setting now will be worth a lot more in 8 weeks’ time so it is important to make sure the fruit setting now is good and the truss has vigour.

The deficiency can be helped by increasing Iron and Manganese and forcing the plant to uptake these elements.  It is winter – you are irrigating less so make sure you increase fertiliser levels in general.  If you are recycling have regular water analysis to check the levels in the combined fresh and recycled applied water. Talk to your local fertiliser specialist about this or if you are one of my customers, please contact me to discuss.  However, there are some other important physical factors that will also help, very simply don’t let cold air on the heads.  The weather will become cold and with prices so low I know growers are reluctant to heat but think of the long game.

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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