In today’s Almond Matters, brought to you by Valent, a new bloom app can help California growers improve the chances for successful pollination. Field Development Manager for Valent USA, Pat Clay said that their new app can help producers make optimal applications of ReTain. The material inhibits ethylene production providing a few extra days for viable pollination. The app is available for both Apple and Android devices.
“Basically, once bloom starts it’s going to be able to predict how bloom is going to progress and give a window of timing where a ReTain application is going to give the best results targeting 30 to 60 percent bloom,” said Clay. “You can get results from ReTain outside of that window, but the return on investment starts to decrease. So 30 to 60 percent is the ideal slot. In a year where bloom might progress rapidly, being on the early side of that is certainly better than being on the late side.”
Enrollment in the new bloom app is simple and incorporates GPS coordinates and varieties of trees in the orchard. Using observations taken between five and 10 percent bloom, the app will make predictions as to when the ideal application window for ReTain will occur during the bloom period. Chill has been good so far this year, with expectations for a uniform bloom. The projected warming period on the horizon could make for a fairly rapid bloom.
“The 14-day forecast is showing a warming trend where we could possibly in 10 days or so be in the 70’s. So, I’m anticipating those buds are going to keep pushing pretty quick and we could see bloom two or three days earlier than average,” Clay noted. “Once the blooms start to open, if the 14-day forecast are what they are, if it stays warm like that and continues warm like that, we could see a pretty rapid bloom this year.”
Listen to the report below.