Strawberries are very sensitive, and their quality tends to decline rather fast after harvest. For this reason, strawberries are often treated by various agrochemicals. As the awareness to the negative implications of traditional chemical inputs increases, there is a growing demand for alternative ways to improve the resilience of plants. Carefully balanced nutrition that made to strengthen plant tissues and fortify cells offers good potential to improve yield quality and eliminate the need for chemical inputs.
During the growth season of 2023, a trial was conducted in Poland to assesses the effectivity of HaifaStim™ products in enhancing yields quality of strawberry crops. Location: Uniszowice, Lublin region, Poland Crop: Strawberry cv Falco Growing system: 0.8 l containers Growth substrate: mix of peat, clay soil and coarse sand in the ratio of 0.5: 2: 0.5. Treatments
1. Untreated control 2. Standard chemical inputs 3. HaifaStim™: foliar applications of 1.2 kg/ha HaifaStim™ Wall-UP S + 1.5 kg/ha HaifaStim™ Vital on the following dates: 4. Flower set 19.05.2023 5. Beginning of flowering 26.05.2023 6. Full flowering 02.06.2023 7. End of flowering 10.06.2023 8. During harvest (before shelf-life checking) 21.06.2023
All plots received the same rates of fertilizers.
On 27.6, all plots were sprayed with disinfectant (Huwa-San) and calcium chloride, to cure damages of a heavy hailstorm.
HaifaStim™ Wall-Up S is a concentrated source of plant available silicon. It helps build plant’s cell walls, thus enhancing mechanical strength, increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses and improving yield quality and extending post-harvest life. Learn more. HaifaStim™ Vital is a natural extract of micronized soft processed brown seaweed, enriched with polyphenols, formulated to improve the plant’s overall performance and enhances abiotic stress resistance. Learn more. Both products are approved for use in organic farming.
Results Higher yield, earlier ripening HaifaStim™ treatment resulted in 8.9% more yield and 10.8% more marketable yield, compared to the standard chemical inputs.
The distribution of fruit bearing over the harvest period was also preferable with HaifaStim™ treatment, resulting in higher percentage of ripen fruit on the early harvest date.
Better quality While the standard chemical inputs treatment seems to deteriorate yield quality, HaifaStim™ treatment improved yield indices of oBrix and vitamin C content, compared to the untreated control.
Longer shelf life Showing same weight loss as the other treatments, HaifaStim™ treatment resulted in better fruit shape after 120 hours from harvest, as the picture shows.
This suggests that HaifaStim™ enhanced the utilization of the applied nutrients by the plant, which helped improving fruit quality.
During the post-harvest assessment, a side effect on decay was noticed: as the figure shows, the occurrence of grey mold after 5 days of storage in 25°C was lowest with HaifaStim™ treatment.
Prefer Nutrigation™? No problem! Where Nutrigation™ (fertigation) is employed, HaifaStim™ products can be applied through the irrigation water, sparing the need for spraying operations.
It has been demonstrated that the positive impact of HaifaStim™ is achieved in this application method, too.
