The Spanish company Agroquímica Codiagro announced that it has tested a solution in 2018 that successfully interrupts the dormancy in stone fruit trees. It is a combination of products, PREVIUM® & BREAK-30®, which manages to break the dormancy in these deciduous trees naturally and without hormones.
The company's technical department explains the purpose and mode of action of these products.
"In case of the plant not receiving the amount of cold hours that it needs, the first big goal that is sought with the PREVIUM® & BREAK 30® treatment is to compensate for the deficit of winter cold, so that the tree abandons the lethargy period and starts flowering.
As a result of not getting the cold hours needed, the tree will suffer a kind of internal imbalance, making it unable to abandon the lethargy period in time. When it does, it will produce a low quantity of flowers, mostly of poor quality."
It is also extremely important to synchronize the flowering and pollination
On many occasions, the plantations must consist of at least two varieties, because certain varieties are autoinfertile, so they require a pollinating variety to be able to yield fruits. Since each variety has a different cold requirement, they will bloom at different times, so the pollen of the donor variety may not be available at the right moment to fertilize the receptive flower.
Lastly, it is very important to advance the harvest
The treatment with PREVIUM® & BREAK 30® is used to make it possible to obtain the fruit earlier than expected. The extent to which the harvest will be advanced will depend mainly on factors such as the species, variety, time of application, dosage, etc.
The time of application is very important and will take place when the variety has received approximately 75% of the cold-hours that it theoretically needs. This tends to be about 35 -40 days before the flowering of this stone fruit variety.
The results obtained in the different tests carried out in Murcia in 2018 have been very promising, achieving production increases of up to 30% in the first harvest and starting several days earlier.
It should be noted that tests have also been carried out with cherry trees in Chile, with excellent results compared to other similar products in the market. Moreover, the PREVIUM® & BREAK 30® treatment has not produced any phytotoxicity in any case when the recommended doses have been applied."
