Sep 8, 2020

Taste and quality keep customers loyal

(Sponsored) You would expect Tom Schwartz, a veteran of South Central Illinois who’s been growing fruit in these parts since the early 1970s, to know a thing or two about how to get the most out of a fruit crop – particularly as much of what he grows is sold direct to the public from his orchards in Centralia and Mount Vernon.

“When you’re looking the buyer in the eye, you have more of an interest than ever in the quality of what you’re selling,” he says. “You’ve got to keep your customers happy, if you’re going to keep them coming back.

“People will remember the quality more than the price. And it’s human nature that an unhappy customer will tell more people about a bad experience than they would about a great experience,” he points out.

“You can’t afford to muck about with quality. Together with yield, it should be front of mind for anyone claiming to be a fruit grower.”

Trying to keep on top of the quality issue isn’t easy, he says. “Weather is changing. We’ve seen annual rainfall of up to 50 inches in the last few years, against a long-term average of up to 40 inches. That brings problems with trees and fruit of all sorts – keeping them free from rot – but when you’ve made a commitment to grow, you’ve got no choice but to keep on top of it.

“You’re either in this business or you’re not.”

A grower like Tom doesn’t stay at the top of his league by standing still. It’s a demonstration of his commitment to always strive to get the best from his apple orchards and strawberry fields that he’s always looking for opportunities to improve yield and quality, so when he got wind of a new product coming to the U.S. market, based on research conducted by a team of British scientists, he was naturally curious.

Any fruit grower recognizes the importance of managing calcium levels. Calcium deficiency lies behind two major apple disorders, blossom end rot and bitter pit, while calcium shortages in a strawberry crop produce soft, squashy fruit with little shelf life. Poor shelf life is also associated with calcium deficiency in peaches, together with lack of flavor.

Growers will also know the difficulty in trying to deliver sufficient calcium to the crop, at the right time. Trying to ‘top-up’ calcium levels in the strawberry plant close to harvest often won’t have the expected effects, either on fruit firmness or post-harvest molding.

Tom’s attention was captured by news that a technology developed by British agritech firm Levity CropScience was now available to U.S. growers. Dubbed a ‘smart’ fertilizer, it ‘directs’ the plant to use calcium more effectively. By emulating the plant hormone auxin, researchers were able to create a specific calcium transport stimulant that avoided the problems growers traditionally experienced with typical calcium products.

When put through its paces in field trials, more than two-thirds of the fruit from treated plants was deemed of marketable quality, compared to less than half of the fruit from plants treated with standard calcium.

Mike Williams, CEO of California-based specialty crop input manufacturer OMEX® Agrifluids USA, has incorporated this technology – known as LoCal – into several of the company’s formulated products.

“As an industry, we’re under an obligation to find ways of getting more from less,” says Mike. “We need to make all our inputs work harder – increasing yield while reducing waste.

“The LoCal technology that we’re putting into products like Cell Power® Calcium Platinum, a product that Tom has brought into his agronomy program for the first time this year, achieves just that.

“Because it’s a more efficient form of delivery, it actually reduces the overall amount of calcium used by the grower. Not only that, but in producing more marketable fruit we’re helping to reduce food waste overall, and all the wasted resources associated with growing food that’s not going to be eaten.”

Tom concedes that he’s not conducting full, replicated trials using controls. “We started using Cell Power® Calcium Platinum only this year, alongside SizeN®, a similar ‘smart’ delivery mechanism for nitrogen.

“SizeN® definitely seems to have increased the number of flowers over our previous nitrogen treatment. It’s based on a different type of nitrogen – stabilized amine – which favors flowers over leaves.

“What’s been particularly noticeable is how it’s delivered more sets: eight or nine through the season, while yields have been phenomenal,” Tom enthuses, “up 30 percent, with really firm, flavorsome fruit that I’m sure will keep our customers coming back.”

Tom says it’s this attention to detail – and always being open to new ideas, products and practices – that keeps customers loyal to Schwartz Orchard.

“Anyone can plant a fruit tree and start selling fruit, but to be a grower worthy of the name it’s being able to make the difference over the last ten per cent. People will remember the quality and that’s what brings them back.”

Learn more at www.omexusa.com.

The product names and brands referenced here are registered and trademarks of OMEX® Agrifluids, Inc.

© OMEX® Agrifluids, Inc. 2020.