During flowering, orchards should be fed with high-quality foliar fertilizers
BINFIELD offers high-quality foliar fertilizers and growth stimulants. In spring 2020, the use of these products in commercial orchards is especially relevant, as sharp temperature fluctuations are expected during flowering.
The basis of fruitful cooperation is partnership. It is best when the parties are equal — in innovation, product quality, responsible fulfilment of obligations, etc. We will tell you about the cooperation between two companies that are leaders in their industries. We are talking about the farm well known for the quality of its apples and juices — Konyk farm — and the company BINFIELD.
About Konyk farm
The farm is located near the city of Uzhhorod. It grows 164 ha of apple trees, of which 30 ha are a young orchard and 70 ha are covered with anti-hail nets. It also grows pears (20 ha) and apricots, plums and sweet cherries — 25, 5 and 8 ha respectively. In the 2019 season, the average apple yield reached 72.5 t/ha, and the yield of a three-year-old Abate Fetel pear orchard was 33 t/ha. In the 2020 season, the first commercial harvest of stone fruit is expected as the plantings come into bearing. Ukrainian consumers know Konyk farm not only for its high-quality apples and pears but also for its excellent fruit, fruit-and-vegetable and berry juices under the Konyk brand.
About BINFIELD
Founded in 2011, BINFIELD offers Ukrainian farmers products from leading European manufacturers — Compo Expert GmbH (Germany), UAB Arvi Fertis (Lithuania), the Grupa Azoty holding (Poland), Achema (Lithuania) and ICL (Israel). This is a broad product portfolio: complex granular fertilizers, including chlorine-free ones, water-soluble and liquid fertilizers for foliar feeding, phytohormone-based growth stimulants, and anti-stress products with plant-derived amino acids. The portfolio also includes products recommended for commercial horticulture — Basfoliar Fruits SL (a phosphite-based product with a fungicidal effect), Basfoliar Aktiv SL (a combined fertilizer with seaweed extract, phosphite and nutrients), Basfoliar Avant Natur SL (an anti-stress product and growth stimulant with plant amino acids), Basfoliar Kelp SL (a liquid macro-fertilizer with auxin and cytokinin), as well as liquid micronutrient fertilizers containing calcium, zinc, boron, manganese, etc.
Andrii Melesh presents Konyk farm products at the True&Local gastronomy festival, 1 March 2020, Kyiv
His experience of using BINFIELD fertilizers and stimulants was shared with us by Andrii Melesh, head of Konyk farm. The conversation took place during the True&Local local gastronomy festival organized by the Silpo chain on 29 February – 1 March 2020 at Lavina Mall (Kyiv). Konyk farm traditionally presented its apples and juices there.
— Mr. Melesh, your products have been on the shelves of the Silpo chain, which focuses only on extra-quality fruit, for many years. What is the secret of your success?
We want our products on supermarket shelves to appeal to our customers so that they buy them again and again. For this, the juices must be tasty and of high quality, and the fruit must be safe for the consumer, keep well and have good organoleptic properties. The harvest itself must be guaranteed so that it can be supplied to the chains for as long as possible during the year.
To be successful, we apply advanced European experience in our orchards, and this requires high-quality European tools, including fertilizers, growth stimulants, plant hormones and anti-stress products.
At the beginning of 2015, our European consultants provided us with technology maps, according to which we urgently needed a reliable supplier of fertilizers and growth regulators that would meet the requirements of the technology. It was at this time that we began cooperating with BINFIELD; it started with simple water-soluble products such as monopotassium phosphate, potassium sulphate and calcium nitrate.
The consultants advised us to apply specific nutrients or growth stimulants according to the development stages of the orchard. Having analyzed BINFIELD’s product portfolio, together with specialists from abroad, who were well familiar with these products, we reached a common opinion and decided to build a foliar fertilization program using mineral fertilizers and growth stimulants produced by the German company COMPO Expert GmbH, offered by BINFIELD. These products contain everything an orchard needs and nothing superfluous, give an absolutely clear, scientifically proven effect, are of high quality and reasonably priced.
— Which products did your acquaintance with BINFIELD start with?
In the first season, we used the entire line of Basfoliar products for orchards. In particular, the liquid fertilizer with phosphites, seaweed extract, cytokinin and auxin — Basfoliar Aktiv SL, the growth stimulant with plant-derived amino acids Basfoliar Avant Natur SL, and micronutrient fertilizers with a high zinc content — Basfoliar Zn Flo — and boron — Basfoliar Boron SP. The result confirmed our expectations.
Cooperation is an important element of success. Andrii Melesh, director of Konyk farm, and Oleksii Hrabovskyi, Agro-service Director of BINFIELD, at the True&Local festival, 1 March 2020, Kyiv
The products offered by BINFIELD solve a number of problems of modern horticulture. For example, the liquid fertilizers Basfoliar Aktiv SL and Basfoliar Fruits SL, which contain phosphorus in phosphite form, are extremely effective. When applied to the leaves, phosphites have not only a stimulating effect but also a systemic fungicidal effect, and when added to a tank mix they enhance the action of contact fungicides.
With periodic application, phosphites prevent scab, alternaria and powdery mildew in susceptible apple varieties, and in stone fruit plantings such treatments prevent Monilinia fruit rot.
In our orchards, we apply Basfoliar Aktiv SL before flowering to improve pollination, after flowering to reduce fruitlet drop, and before and after stress conditions (spring frosts, critically high temperatures, etc.) to reduce their negative impact. To enhance the fungicidal action in pome fruit orchards, we apply phosphites from the red bud stage, when conditions become favourable for the spread of scab ascospores. Important: phosphites have a systemic fungicidal effect only when applied preventively. In total, we make up to 6–8 applications of phosphite-based products on apples and pears during the season.
Using phosphites on apples allows us to “save” 2–3 systemic fungicide treatments per season. That is, to protect against scab and powdery mildew, we apply systemic products only when absolutely necessary, and this reliably prevents fungal pathogens from developing resistance to systemic compounds.
— BINFIELD’s portfolio includes a fertilizer-growth stimulant with plant amino acids — Basfoliar Avant Natur SL. How do you use it and what are its advantages?
We apply the Basfoliar Avant Natur SL stimulant on apples after flowering, twice, at high rates. The aim is to support the development of the leaf surface — this increases the flow of assimilates into plant tissues and, as a result, reduces natural fruitlet drop.
As for the effectiveness of amino acids in fertilizers, there are two key points. The first concerns their origin — plant or animal. Animal and plant organisms have the same set of amino acids, but in the animal set the concentration of certain acids differs from the plant set. Therefore, when applied to leaves, animal amino acids work, but less effectively, as they are out of tune with the plant.
The second important point is the method of amino acid production. Although chemical hydrolysis is the most common, enzymatic hydrolysis is the most effective — a fermentation-like process during which proteins naturally break down into amino acids. Only amino acids obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis work effectively in fertilizers: they have the correct chemical structure and plants take them up properly.
The amino acids in the liquid fertilizer-stimulant Basfoliar Avant Natur SL are obtained precisely from plant raw materials using enzymatic hydrolysis.
At a tasting of juices enjoyed by both adults and kids
— Does BINFIELD’s portfolio include products especially recommended for stone fruit?
Yes. It is Basfoliar Kelp SL, a liquid growth stimulant with an extract of natural phytohormones — auxin and cytokinin. This product is ideal for stone fruit. For apples, there are a number of powerful chemically synthesized plant hormones — gibberellins, benzyladenine, naphthylacetic acid, etc. In contrast, the auxin and cytokinin in Basfoliar Kelp SL are obtained from brown seaweed, and thanks to their natural origin they act gently and in a balanced way. Regulating the yield of stone fruit crops, whose fruits are much more delicate, requires precisely natural phytohormones extracted from plant raw materials. Their balance (ratio of components) is easily accepted by the plant.
On stone fruit, we use the feeding and yield stimulation program recommended by European consultants. Before flowering, we apply phosphite-based products (Basfoliar Fruits SL or Basfoliar Aktiv SL) 1–2 times; during flowering — Basfoliar Kelp SL with natural auxin and cytokinin at 2 l/ha; after flowering — twice, at high rates of 10 l/ha, the fertilizer-stimulant with plant amino acids Basfoliar Avant Natur SL.
— Do you use foliar fertilizers from suppliers other than BINFIELD in your orchards?
No. BINFIELD currently has everything we need for foliar applications. For soil nutrition we use well-known simple fertilizers. A very big advantage is that BINFIELD products contain no unnecessary compounds. Unfortunately, it is now common practice in foliar fertilizers to generously mix various compounds in one product — micronutrients and other “improvers”. This raises the price of the fertilizer, but not always its effectiveness. Horticulture now has a big problem: production costs are rising while purchase prices are falling. To stay afloat, there is no other way than to use effective products with optimal content and price.
In terms of the cost per hectare of active ingredients and the impact of treatments on the cost of the final product, BINFIELD offers the most effective tools on the domestic market. Their price and quality make it possible to carry out the optimal number of treatments in the orchard. Using BINFIELD products,, we do not have to reduce the application rates of foliar fertilizers, as other suppliers sometimes recommend — in such cases cunning marketers usually say: “Yes, our product is super expensive, but you need half as much.” But this is not true, because plant needs are biologically determined. If plants do not receive the necessary amount of feeding or stimulation, such applications will not fulfil their role.
The rates of foliar fertilizers, stimulating compounds and phytohormones for our orchards are calculated by leading European consultants with whom the farm has cooperated for a long time, whom it trusts, and with whom it is successful.
As for unnecessary, often mysterious, ingredients in foliar fertilizers, one should be careful with such products, because these additives can leave chemical residues or deposits in the fruit that are not regulated by the technology, or provoke russeting (on apples, pears), etc. BINFIELD, on the other hand, honestly declares all the ingredients and their concentrations in its products.
— What is your forecast for the horticultural industry in 2020?
There was practically no winter this year. Orchards will start flowering much earlier, which means a much higher risk than in previous seasons of frosts or simply low temperatures during flowering. And to strengthen the plants, Basfoliar Aktiv SL or Basfoliar Fruits SL will need to be applied in the orchard at least once every two weeks.
We are satisfied with our long-term cooperation with the professional BINFIELD team. Our farm has already purchased products for effective balanced foliar nutrition. We recommend that fellow fruit growers do the same.
At Konyk farm, Abate Fetel pears yielded 33 t/ha of excellent-quality fruit in 2019
Interview by Lesia Kadelia, Sadivnytstvo po-ukrainsky magazine, specially for agrotimes.ua
