During the winter break, it is essential to carry out a complete nutritional program; Prostart Plus, a product made up of nutrients and hormonal cofactors, helps plants to balance themselves and improve their sprouting and flowering.
Physiological dormancy in cherry orchards is marked by leaf fall, a process that, according to cherry production specialists, should reach at least 50 percent of yellow leaves (yellow leaf = fallen leaf), ideally by May 1, which is the date on which the accumulation of cold hours, so important for the processes of the following season, can already be counted.
During this winter dormancy, it is extremely important to carry out various agronomic management measures and, of course, to have an adequate nutritional program, which allows the plant to face the next season in the best possible way. In this regard, Prostart Plus is presented as an excellent product to achieve, among other objectives, a uniform sprouting of floral and vegetative buds.
“The Prostart Plus product is a homogenizer of sprouting and flowering, since it is basically a biostimulant, whose mixture is nutrients and hormonal cofactors. So, what the product seeks is, one, from the hormonal cofactors route, to help the plant to balance and improve its sprouting and flowering, that is, that all the buds that sprout ideally do so at the same time, as synchronously as possible; and secondly, it is to stimulate greater development, faster growth and also be a nutritional contribution with the nutritional base that the product has.”, explains Francisco Maldonado, Technical Manager of Stoller Chile.
Prostart Plus also allows for the recovery of buds in the middle third of the tree with a targeted application, generating new growth in old plant material, improving the vigor of shoots in plants weakened by the application of cyanamide, promoting better flowering and setting, and increasing the photosynthetic activity of the first leaves.
“When should I apply Prostart Plus? Basically, there are two moments in which these types of products are used. Normally, in areas where hydrogenated cyanamides are used, the product is applied 7 days after the cyanamides, that is, you apply the cyanamides, this signal is generated that the plant has to wake up, but in reality it will wake up earlier, but not necessarily more orderly, so, the grace of this type of product, precisely in the later application, is to stimulate the early sprouting that forced the cyanamide in a much more balanced and much more homogeneous way. Now, where we separate ourselves from the competition, is that normally they cannot apply more than those 7 days after the cyanamide, because if they apply later than that point, it is very likely that it will end up generating some phytotoxicity or some damage to the tissue, on the other hand, with Prostart Plus you can apply later than that”, Maldonado explained.
This offers certain advantages, especially in areas such as southern Chile, where it is not necessary to start production earlier and there are no problems with lack of cold.
“You can apply Prostar Plus from green tips and swollen buds onwards, let’s say at that time, ideally looking for exactly the same thing, to homogenize and help the plant to sprout in a much more homogeneous, powerful way and that has a beneficial effect later on setting, beginning of fruit growth. So, that is like a differential of Prostart Plus with the rest of the products that we can apply later and with exposed green tissue,” explained Technical Manager Stoller Chile.
However, Prostart Plus can also be used in earlier areas, such as northern Chile.
“For example, thinking about the northern area, where you actually use tools like hydrogenated cyanamides that play a role that, in this case, is to compensate for the lack of cold in early areas or advance budding, but effectively, they are tools that are so powerful that they generate a stress effect on the plant. So, in those cases, Prostart Plus applied later, will not only help to homogenize budding and flowering, but also in some way calm and alleviate a little this stress generated by cyanamide, because Prostart Plus are nutrients and cofactors and that biostimulation will help to relax a little the stress or mitigate that stress”, they pointed out from Stoller.
However, if the plant's stress was caused by high temperatures, water shortage, high radiation or frost, this product is also indicated to treat these types of complications in the garden.
“When you have, for example, a depressed or sick orchard, where the sprouting is not going to be good because it is stressed, either because it had a stressful summer and went to sleep badly or because it suffered a winter frost, precisely these hormonal cofactors and nutrients will generate a biostimulant effect, helping us to have a much more harmonious development at the beginning of the season,” said Francisco Maldonado.
For the effectiveness of Prostart Plus, it is extremely important to apply it correctly and follow the instructions on the label.
“Application is normally done with a high volume nebulizer, of course it depends a lot on the orchard architecture for wetting, but what is usually used is between 1,000 to 1,200 liters per hectare, and the product is dosed at a rate of 8%. Normally when we make early applications, that is, after hydrogenated cyanamide, the product is accompanied by Calcium Nitrate, because the plant is not yet so awake, so one needs support; but when late applications are made, that is, on green tips, you only need Prostart Plus at the same dose,” explained Technical Manager Stoller Chile.
Francisco Maldonado also recommends taking into consideration an important aspect when applying Prostart Plus: “Ideally, Prostart Plus should be mixed with some adjuvant because, in reality, especially in early applications, it is extremely important that it can adhere to the wood, that it can penetrate the tree tissue, which is very woody; and in the case of late applications, even so, it will always be good for penetration effect, adherence to the tissue, so that will always generate greater success in the results.”
Stoller Chile also stresses the importance of the correct condition of the machinery with which the applications will be carried out: “Calibrating the machinery is always crucial, not only to be able to effectively cover the plant, but also to ensure efficient use of resources. This is key for me, because it also means savings directly for the producer. In other words, since these are products that depend on the amount of wetting, if you have your wetting very limited, you will use the dose that corresponds to you.”
As final recommendations for the application of Prostart Plus in cherry orchards, Francisco Maldonado, Technical Manager of Stoller Chile, emphasizes two aspects: “The first recommendation is that normally when you use this type of product, one tends to have or make the wrong association as a hydrogenated cyanamide, that is, what you want is to enter the orchard and see everything green with white and in the background, what is important here is synchrony, that is, entering the orchard, walking through the orchard, and seeing that everything is indeed sprouting, everything is in flower, that in the background more or less everything has woken up and is in the same phenological state; the key is to be able to synchronize flowering and sprouting in such a way that those early leaves feed your fruit faster and have an effect on other types of parameters, be it size, development, etc.”
On the other hand, Maldonado adds: “The second big recommendation is to go all the way; for example, in early areas where a lot of other types of products are used that target the same niche, where they are often a little more abrasive, suddenly you enter the orchard and you have the feeling that it worked better; that is why you should not just stay with the first impression and go all the way to the harvest, because in the end, if you are going to spend 50% more per hectare, but you are going to reach the same harvest date, you are going to arrive with the same caliber, with the same color, the truth is that you paid 50% more for something that you really did not need. So, the recommendation with this type of product is always to go all the way, that is, that this homogeneity or impulse at the beginning of the season has a repercussion and a good cost benefit, at the end of the cycle,”
It is important to note that it is important to plan the application of Prostart Plus, in order to have the products, undertake the tasks and face the harvest process correctly.
“It is important to know which sectors you are going to advance, which sectors you are going to leave normal, which ones are going to use one tool, which ones you are going to use another, just thinking about having a range that allows for a harvest flow; that is crucial, and perhaps it would be helpful, especially for those who apply cyanamide, to try to stock up as early as possible, those who use these types of products like Prostart, plus Calcium Nitrate as well, that is to say, ideally try to make an early planning. Fertilizers are more expensive, there is a certain level of stock problems in general at the level of these products, so planning here is going to be key,” concluded the Technical Manager of Stoller Chile, Francisco Maldonado.