On Thursday, February 8, a new episode of Smartcherry TV premiered titled ‘The Kickoff.’ The audiovisual work included the participation of Carlos Tapia, an advisor, specialist in cherry production, and Technical Director of Avium; Valeria Lepe, a nutrition specialist advisor; Kym Green, the producer and precursor of the KGB conduction system; and Emilio Martínez, the Leader of the Avium R&D area.
“The post-harvest period considers, in quotes, a whole; there are several factors that will affect the well-being of the plant, but definitely what matters is the scheduling, the irrigation strategy. I would say the first on the list, in uppercase and perhaps in neon, is irrigation; the concept of irrigation is crucial. We can use nutritional strategies, stress prevention, mitigators, etc., but if we are irrigating improperly, we are somehow nullifying everything we are trying to do alongside irrigation,” warned Carlos Tapia.
“In addition to irrigation -the most relevant task during the post-harvest period of cherry orchards-, the report addressed, with the help of specialists, the topics of agronomic management, thermal-hydric stress, sunscreens, foliar analysis, stomatal behavior, and soil and foliar nutrition programs.”
“Nowadays, we must focus on two aspects: the soil nutrition program and the foliar nutrition program (…) Well, the idea is to replenish nutrients, mainly Nitrogen, Potassium, some Phosphorus, some Calcium, and in some cases, if I need to make some special corrections, if I’m dealing with blocks with a certain degree of weakness, it’s also a time for amendments like liquid organic matter or some other components that one would like to use,” stated advisor Valeria Lepe.
“Kym Green, producer, advisor, and pioneer of the KGB conduction system, was also part of the report. The Australian referred to post-harvest irrigation management in cherry orchards in his country: ‘What I see is that we’ve filled our space with good fruiting wood, and after the harvest, we continue watering. So, that good wood at the top keeps growing more and more and more, in some places up to 1.5 meters of new growth at the top. That energy, that shade is damaging the cheaper part of the tree. So we found that if we stop watering after the harvest, let it dry out, let the tree stop growing, it thinks it’s dying and puts its energy into the fruit,’ explained Kym Green.”
The report, sponsored by Chemie Agro, Daymsa, Syngenta, and Vadpagro, is available on the YouTube channel, Smartcherry TV, Stay tuned and remember that you can activate English subtitles in the video settings.
