Tag Archives: Fruit Focus

Industry getting ready for Fruit Focus

As preparations for Fruit Focus on 25th July continue, the event, which is expected to connect more than 1,300 visitors to over 120 exhibitors, says it will focus on the continued evolution of the UK fruit industry as it faces climate change, Brexit, new technology and irrigation challenges.

The event will give growers the chance to see the latest innovation in water use and irrigation in the Water Efficient Technologies (WET) Centre. Opened last year, it features a fully automated Precision Irrigation Package, which has proven to reduce the use of water, fertilisers, pesticides and energy by 20% while also delivering up to a 10% increase in strawberry yields. With new abstraction licenses on the horizon, the area is sure to be popular.

Event hosts NIAB EMR will also be holding a forum looking at precision growing of soft fruit, encompassing new innovations and technologies to enhance crop productivity, resilience and quality. The ever-popular research tours will include the research vineyard, WET centre and concept pear orchard. “NIAB EMR’s showpiece demonstration feature, the WET Centre, is in its first full year of production, and we are anticipating a heavy crop of Malling™ Centenary,” comments Prof Mario Caccamo, managing director at NIAB EMR.

Other attractions include the NFU Forum and tours looking at strawberry pollination and the ‘concept pear orchard.’ Tickets are on sale now.

Photo Credit: Fruit Focus

The post Industry getting ready for Fruit Focus appeared first on Hort News on 21 June 2018.

Syngenta Bioline targets thrips at Fruit Focus

Essex-based Syngenta Bioline is using Fruit Focus to highlight the threat that Western Flower Thrips (WFT) pose to strawberry production.

“Western Flower Thrips remain a major problem in strawberry production, and growing resistance to conventional crop protection products continues to exacerbate this problem,” comments the firm’s Richard GreatRex.

To help growers manage the pest Syngenta Bioline offers both ThripLine sticky roller traps and the predatory mite Amblyseius cucumeris in its AmblyLine cu product. The company says that recent trials have demonstrated that TrapLine roller traps, which are available in lengths of 100 metres, and widths of 15 and 30 cms, can give significant reductions in the numbers of adult thrips in flowers, as well as improved fruit quality.

AmblyLine cu sachets can be used in tunnels and open field crops, as well as in glasshouses. Richard adds that they “Provide a tried and tested solution, producing high numbers of Amblyseius cucumeris continuously over several weeks, thus providing prolonged protection for the crop.”

Syngenta Bioline can be found on Stand 228 at Fruit Focus, which is held at East Malling in Kent on 22 July.

The post Syngenta Bioline targets thrips at Fruit Focus appeared first on Hort News.