Effect Of Agrizest Treatment On Fruit Quality, Yield And Orchard Gate Returns Compared To A Foliar Seaweed Fertiliser

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward).

Kiwifruit trial 1

Trial Location:

Bodmin Orchard, Katikati, New Zealand


Trial Objectives:

To Show That Agrizest will:

1. Lift Orchard Gate Returns

2. Improve Fruit Quality.

plus compare the performance of a maturity block treated with Agrizest to a block treated with a foliar fertiliser spay.

The trial was carried out in response to claims that a seaweed fertiliser is ‘the same as Agrizest’.

This is a trial summary, a full trial report and data from additional trials is available on request.

 

Trial Design: Split block, independent, commercial scale trial.

‘Treated Block’ – One maturity area was treated with Agrizest.

Agrizest was applied as per label at 1 litre per hectare applied twice before flowering and twice after flowering.

No foliar nutrient sprays were applied.

‘Seaweed Fertiliser Block’ – the rest of the orchard received 3X5 litres of foliar fertiliser per hectare sprayed on 8 November, 10-12 December and 20 December.  The spray is a NPK fortified foliar fertiliser based on Acadian Seaweed, humic acids and additional minerals and trace elements.

  • The sprays were applied by the orchardist/contractor.

  • All other treatments, pruning etc. of the blocks were the same.

  • This is a large split block trial to eliminate random errors.

  • The total crop was evaluated to eliminate sampling errors.

  • Quality and yield aspects were electronically detected or measured to avoid subjective assessment errors.


Pre-Harvest Monitoring



Table 1. Summary of the 30 fruit monitoring result.

A pre-harvest monitoring assessment was carried out on 01 May.  The results indicated that the Agrizest treated block would deliver higher brix, dry matter and TZG than the seaweed fertiliser area.  From these results we can expect higher fruit quality at pack-out.





Final Pack-Out Data


Graph 1. Size Related Fruit Payment

Based on the pack-out data a large contribution to the increase in orchard gate returns (which is over $6600 per hectare higher in the Agrizest treated block) is from the improved fruit size profile. This is illustrated in the graph above

Table 2.Final Pack Out Data

The final pack-out data shows that the Agrizest treatment delivered:

1. Increased dry matter production (+700kg)

2. Increased yield (+4 T)

3. Improvement in fruit size profile

4. An increase in in Orchard Gate Returns (an additional $6626 per hectare) compared to the seaweed fertiliser treated area.

Pack out data

Conclusion

Kiwifruit treated with Agrizest outperformed blocks treated with a fortified seaweed foliar fertiliser in terms of fruit quality and yield. 

Agrizest treatment increased orchard gate returns by $6626 per hectare compared to the seaweed fertiliser.

This trial clearly demonstrates that a seaweed fertiliser spray which is a “NPK fortified foliar fertiliser based on Acadian Seaweed, humic acids and additional minerals and trace elements” cannot be claimed as a similar product to Agrizest and will not deliver the same fruit quality, yield or Orchard Gate Returns.

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