Cultiva's Parka
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report.
In recent years periods of extreme heat have become more common for tree fruit growers causing sun damage, reduced coloring and lower pack-out at harvest.
Thiago Moraes, North American Sales Manager for Cultiva, has some insights on these weather patterns and how tools like Parka can help.
Q: So, Thiago, how is heat stress in recent years impacting apples and cherries?
MORAES-1 • Heat stress can negatively impact all crops by adversely affecting growth, development and productivity.
Heat stress is a widespread problem due to the continuous rise in atmospheric temperature and its potential to impact the crop at multiple stages.
• High-temperature stress disrupts biochemical reactions fundamental to normal cell functioning, and it primarily affects the photosynthetic functions of plants. Reproductive processes also are affected by heat stress in most plants.
• Heat stress can have significant impacts on apples and cherries, including sunburn damage, reduced fruit size and poor color development, all of which affect fruit quality and packout at harvest.
• Heat stress not only affects not just the current crop but can compromise overall tree health and productivity for future seasons.
Q: So, when using Parka, how does it help reduce the effects of the high temperatures and heat stress?
• Parka is an excellent plant health solution proven to fortify the fruit cuticle, which helps to minimize sunburn incidence in apples by 44%, per our R&D/ research findings, trials.
• Parka increases stress tolerance in apples by enhancing antioxidant capacity as well as the amount of chlorophyll and pheophytin, both essential tools needed to manage light energy during photosynthesis.
