Charles Moon & Sons

07711 593316 . 07860 395334 email: c.mooncontracting@outlook.com covering the south east offering the personal touch to contract spreading. We have a wide range of unique and custom machinery suitable for all types of fruit, vineyard and arable spreading applications. Lime, compost, fertiliser, GPS, soil sampling and dung etc.

“It’s a game changer, it’s completely transformed our farming process. We use it on everything. I can’t knock it, we’re absolutely delighted with it.”

Inter Plant Weeder customer from low O2 stress, high CO2 levels, high respiration rates when entering storage to poor fruit porosity.

Since harvest maturity impacts the likelihood of the fruit developing internal browning during storage, it’s important to pick apples at just the right time, he pointed out.

Through his research, Dr Colgan has been investigating the di usion characteristics of various apple varieties in both a lab and commercial setting. Amongst others, he established that fruit porosity measurements can help identify orchard consignments with greater risks of incurring core ush in Braeburn.

Dr Mark Else, head of crop science and production systems at NIAB EMR, talked about some of the ongoing work at the Plum Demonstration Centre (PDC), mainly relating to using data from sensors, data loggers and rain gauges to inform decision making in the orchard.

At present, the primary research priorities for the PDC are:

• Optimising consistency and quality in British varieties

• Precision irrigation strategies for UK plums, such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD)

• Developing N-demand models to optimise fertiliser inputs for rootstocks and scions. In line with the current industry trend of moving towards more regenerative practices, the centre is also looking at the e ects of wild ower strips on bene cial orgs and ecosystem services.

Rounding up the session, Robert Saville, innovation growth manager at NIAB, o ered delegates an insight into how Growing Kent & Medway has been helping horticultural businesses become more sustainable.

Dr Matevs Papp-Rupar, plant pathologist and project leader at NIAB, shared some highlights from his work on European apple canker (Neonectria ditissima), a fungal disease of high interest to UK growers.

Apple canker can infect wounds on petals, leaves and branches that may occur from pruning or picking and can destroy up to 30% of newly planted orchards, Dr Papp-Rupar explained. Other than reducing yield, fruit quality, and longevity of infected orchards, the disease can also lead to post-harvest fruit rot, causing further losses to growers.

Due to a lack of e ective chemical products, canker management involves year-round control with a particular emphasis on hygienic practices, particularly in young orchards, he added.

Current canker management research at NIAB EMR includes:

• Investigating the e cacy of new and existing spray products

• Development of novel microbial amendments to increase canker resilience

• Exploring the impact of orchard site on canker expression

• Investigating soil amendments for improved orchard resilience.

Dr Papp-Rupar also outlined plans for an upcoming project looking at factors that in uence a site’s susceptibility to canker, with grower involvement required for data collection.

Dr Thomas Passey, pest and pathogen ecologist at NIAB, provided updates on the prevention and control of ARD, which refers to the poor establishment of young apple trees planted in soils where the same species had grown previously.

ARD causes uneven growth throughout the orchard, alongside stunting, shortened internodes on shoots, discolored or necrotic roots, and reduced root biomass. While many trees will survive the disease, overall fruit production and quality will be compromised (up to 50–60% reduction in yield), Dr Passey said.

Since broad-spectrum fumigants e ective against the disease are banned, Dr Passey’s research has been focusing on alternative ways to control ARD.

One way is mixing up rootstock genotypes in newly planted trees, as rootstock with di erent genetic backgrounds have been shown to respond di erently to ARD. There are also a number of bene cial microbes that can be used to improve tree establishment and reduce the risk of the disease, Dr Passey added.

Pest and ecology research in tree fruit Dr Francis Wamonje, research leader in entomology at NIAB, presented new research on a number of key tree fruit pests, as well as updates from three CTP studentship project.

With the demise of broad-spectrum insecticides, pest control is currently a hot topic in tree fruit research. Dr Wamonje has conducted a number of projects on control strategies against apple saw y (Hoplocampa testudinea), forest bug (Pentatoma ru pes), and brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys).

“This work will pave the way for development of control strategies including mass trapping and mating disruption which will further alleviate the need to apply pesticides and secure the future of apple and pear growing in the UK and beyond,” Dr Wamonje remarked.

Laura Reeves, a PhD student at the University of Reading, presented her work looking at the interaction between pear trees, pear sucker (Cacopsylla pyri) and its natural enemies.

Pear sucker is a dominant pest of pear in the UK, with natural enemies including anthocorids, earwigs, ladybirds and spiders.

Throughout her PhD, Ms Reeves examined how the warming climate would a ect interactions between pear sucker and its key predator, Anthocoris nemoralis.

From functional and behavioural response experiments, she concluded A. nemoralis is likely to remain an e ective predator of pear sucker due to no signi cant di erences in feeding behaviour under warmer temperatures.

Meanwhile, another PhD student from the University of Reading, Charlotte Howard, shared some preliminary ndings from her ongoing research into the impact of wild owers on orchard pest control services.

Lastly, PhD student Konstantinos Tsiolis from the University of Reading provided an insight into the nesting preferences of solitary ground-nesting bees in apple orchards.

To shed light on the preferred soil properties of solitary ground nesting bees (speci cally Andrena haemorrhoa, A. dorsata, and A. nitida), he measured nine soil variables on eight south-facing bare ground plots. Upon discovering the bees also like to nest in vegetation, he suggests creating both bare ground and semi-vegetated habitats in orchards to increase bee diversity and ensure sustainability of pollination in the future.

The nal session of the webinar was dedicated to spotted wing drosophila (SWD), a major problem pest for top and soft fruit growers. Returning from the NIAB Soft Fruit Day event in November 2022, Clare Sampson, technical director at Russell IPM, spoke about the bene ts of Probandz, a coste ective adjuvant for SWD management.

Likewise, Dr Bethan Shaw, research leader in entomology at NIAB, shared some interesting ndings regarding the impact of SWD bait sprays on bene cial insects via a pre-recorded presentation. Her talk was followed by Glen Slade, founder and CEO of BigSis, who provided updates on the development of sterile insect technique for SWD control.

A detailed writeup of the above talks can be found in the Jan/Feb 2023 issue of Fruit & Vine

Concluding the event, Adam Walker, research assistant in entomology at NIAB, shared results from recent precision monitoring trials targeting SWD. The work aimed to investigate the e ciency of precision monitoring traps in woodlands neighbouring soft fruit crops at reducing SWD numbers.

According to Mr Walker, the results have shown around 50% reduction in the pest in woodlands and neighbouring crops where there were precision monitoring traps compared to control plots. A related study has also determined that traps catch more SWD around bramble in the summer and ivy in the autumn.

In his closing remarks, Mr Walker said growers can optimise SWD catches by placing traps in the correct habitats at di erent times of the year.