Good Fruit & Vegetables

An insurance policy against imperfect growing conditions

Citrus farmer Cor Greyling has seen the effects of EndoPrime® for himself as he takes note of the difference between the treated and untreated trees on his property.
Citrus farmer Cor Greyling has seen the effects of EndoPrime® for himself as he takes note of the difference between the treated and untreated trees on his property.

This is advertiser content for Sumitomo Chemical Australia.

Cor Greyling is the farm manager at Vitonga Pty Ltd in Moree where he looks after 350 hectares of citrus trees, the produce from which goes to the company owned juicing facility Grove Juice at Warwick in Queensland.

When Cor started in the role a couple of years ago, the previous farm manager mentioned in the transition that he had treated a row of newly planted trees with EndoPrime®, a plant and soil enhancement product from Sumitomo Chemical Australia.

Cor freely admits that for the first year or so of the tree growth stage, he was very dubious and felt that the trial had been unsuccessful.

Now however, as the trees have reached their second year of growth, he says that the difference between the treated and the untreated trees is quite marked.

As we spoke to Cor, he was driving through the orchard and described the visual differences between the treated and untreated areas of the crop.

"The treated trees are definitely bigger," Cor said.

"I would estimate between seven and ten per cent bigger than the untreated.

"Apart from this, there is much less variability in the row with the treated trees showing a much more consistent size.

"The final thing that I notice is that the treated trees appear to have a greener canopy which I would expect is a result of the mycorrhizae in the Endoprime colonising their root systems leading to improved nutrient availability and utilisation," he added.

"We all know the value of a kilogram oranges, but how do you calculate the value of additional growth?"

Cor is so happy with the results from Endoprime that he is planning to treat a production block of adult trees as he believes that a healthier root system will allow better utilisation of fertilisers which should lead to improved yield.

"It doesn't take much of a yield improvement to justify the cost of the Endoprime," he told us.

EndoPrime is a plant and soil enhancement product that contains mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae are beneficial fungi that naturally exist in soils colonising the root systems of plants.

EndoPrime includes four high performing endo-mycorrhizae species that have been proven to increase crop productivity and overall plant and soil health.

EndoPrime can assist plants through: Improved nutrient availability and utilisation, improved water use efficiency, improved soil health and is an excellent insurance policy against non-ideal growing conditions.

The relationship between mycorrhizae and plants is one of the oldest symbiotic relationship on the planet and occurs between most tree and vine crops as well as annual crops.

With modern farming practices we control weeds that act as living hosts for mycorrhizae as well as cultivating the soil and in some instances using fumigants and other harsh practices where we severely deplete these beneficial fungi.

Re-inoculating beneficial mycorrhizae into the soil with EndoPrime at transplanting, whether it be a tree crop such as in Cor's citrus example or an annual fruit and vegetable crop ensures that the crop can perform to its full potential and will improve soil health at the same time.

This is advertiser content for Sumitomo Chemical Australia.