Orchards
Controlling bitter pit in a Najafabad apple orchard
Storage losses cut from 18% to 4% by correcting the calcium and boron programme.
- Storage loss
- 18% → 4%
- Foliar rounds
- 2 → 4
- Area
- 11 ha
- Year
- 2023
Challenge
Fruit looked sound in the orchard but after two months in store up to 18% became unsellable due to bitter pit. The grower was applying calcium, but at the wrong timing and in the wrong form.
Solution
Foliar calcium moved from two late-season applications to four starting at fruit set, and boron was added to improve calcium mobility within the plant. Late-season nitrogen was reduced at the same time.
Results
Storage losses fell to 4% the following season. Fruit size uniformity improved and the export-grade share rose.
Other projects
Rebuilding the nutrition programme of a Rafsanjan pistachio orchard
38% less mineral fertiliser alongside a higher split-nut percentage — achieved purely by correcting timing and application form.
Trunk injection of plane trees on central Isfahan avenues
Sucking-pest control on 1,200 plane trees with not one drop sprayed in a public space.
Fungal disease control in a Shahrekord tomato greenhouse
Botrytis resolved by fixing ventilation and VPD rather than increasing fungicide.