Versatile biostimulant could supercharge fruit growth
3rd October 2022
The biostimulant Carboplex promotes plant development and fruit growth by hastening the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar, resulting in earlier flowering, fruiting and harvest.
Other than increasing sugar levels (Brix building), Carboplex offers various benefits to fruit crops. It increases fruit and flower number, promotes colour development and improves the shelf life of the fruit. The biostimulant also helps reduce alternate bearing in tree crops and boosts growth and recovery in poorly performing plants.
The product was launched on 13th July at Fruit Focus. According to Grant James, Olmix sales manager for the UK and Ireland, Carboplex combines naturally occurring biostimulant materials and trace elements formulated with the AMIX Active Uptake Complex delivery system.
“Micromix’s system is based on humic and fulvic acids with lignin salts uniquely formulated to produce a low pH formulation that does not compromise humic solubility,” Mr James explained.
“The AMIX Complex works with all divalent metallic cations to generate active, rather than passive uptake at the leaf surface. It has consistently generated yield responses even in the absence of any measurable nutrient deficiency.”
Carboplex is very effective at increasing plant carbohydrate production by boosting fruit Brix levels and providing the crop with plant-sourced sugars. It also encourages the crop to convert carbohydrates into sugars faster, even under unfavourable conditions such as low temperatures.
During a company trial in Spain, Carboplex was applied on grape crops four times during the winter period, twice during early florescence and after fruit set and twice at 15-day intervals six weeks before harvest. According to Mr James, Brix levels were 16% higher in treated plants with fruit cluster weight up to 15% above the control.
“This combination and formulation of the biostimulant materials accelerates flower and fruit development by short-cutting some energy-hungry processes. This system means an earlier harvest as the plant’s natural ripening processes are speeded up,” Mr James added.
Other than supercharging vegetative development, Carboplex can also help fight alternate bearing syndrome in tree crops in programme with Multi- N and Proplex. The syndrome affects perennial reproductive variability and results in a year of high reproduction being followed by a year of low.
“Multi-N applied to the foliage after harvest causes the tree to store the extra nitrogen as carbohydrates over winter. Carboplex, applied when the leaves unfurl the next spring induces the tree to mobilise the stored carbohydrate as sugar, energising it and increasing blossom sites and potential yield,” Mr James said.
