Article taken from The Fruit Grower, November 2017, written by Rachel Anderson.
Agrovista has added to the long list of biological crop care products now available to growers. Following enquiries from the top fruit industry, the firm has teamed up with Loddington Farm Ltd to launch a new service, whereby topfruit growers can inoculate their established orchards with mycorrhizal fungi in the form of Plantworks' RGPro. Mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship with plants, colonising tree roots and increasing their root uptake area by up to 700 times. This enables them to better absorb nutrients and water, and helps trees to cope with stresses such as drought, waterlogging and pathogens. Agrovista's lead fruit agronomist Paul Bennett said: ""Any tree not suffering from stress is less likely to suffer from a pathogen-led disease or pest attack."" The service is currently being rolled out and sees a Stocks Ag Rotor Meter, typically used to place granules, slug pellets or fertilisers into the field, fitted to a root-pruner blade to create a new device. This system enables RGPro to be inserted close to the trees' small fibrous roots.