Crop: Maxstim for Agriculture

Wijstwater Advies, expert blueberry consultants based in Holland conducted a trial on several Northern Highbush varieties.

100 plants were treated with Maxstim and compared with control plants. All plants received the same nutrition via fertigation.

Once the floricanes were planted, Maxstim was applied at 2.5L per hectare each week via the irrigation system. The trial was monitored through the growing stage and data was collected at harvest which was between November and December.

The trial was setup in mid-August.

Guy & Wright was founded in 1928 by Mr Guy, his great grandson John Jones has taken the family business forward with successful and innovative new farming techniques and has become a front runner in creating a ‘Green’ business. Searching for more ways to improve their crops, John was keen to trial Maxstim on their Eclipse variety.

He instantly noticed the younger plants developed more quickly and was able to meet the supermarket punnet weight requirements with fewer fruits.

Van Kempen Farms grow their Bok Choy under a tunnel system and wanted to see what effect Maxstim would have on the health and quality of their plants. With a short turnaround on the lifecycle of the crop of just 5-6 weeks, they planted the seeds and kicked off the trial with the first application of Maxstim.

Applications were made after 1 week of planting the seeds, and again after 10 days at 4L per acre. During the trial the plants treated with Maxstim had thicker stems and the leaves were noticeably greener.

At harvest the grower was pleased that the Maxstim treated crops showed improved health and denser root development.

Alberto Garcia farms in Spain were looking to increase the quality and quantity over their previous year’s Aubergine crop. January is one of the coldest months for growing in the region with weekly harvests producing a big difference in yield from one week to the next.

The aim was to get a consistent harvest with a higher yield, so targets for the trial were set at above 1,000 kg per week for a 2,700m2 growing area, with results monitored through January. Previous years often fell short of this target so would applying Maxstim have an uplift?

Francisco Rubio grows ‘Telma’ variety Aubergines on his farm in El Ejido, Spain and was looking to increase the health of his yield to encourage more profitable high-quality fruit. He set up the trial using Maxstim on the plants in his oldest greenhouse where the soil is tired and used the new greenhouse to compare the results.

Once the first application was made the farmer removed the plant leaves to encourage growth in the existing fruit this, unfortunately, puts the plants into a stressful situation.

However, after 2 applications of Maxstim, the plants started recovering from this stress and new leaves started to appear.

The end result was 50% more harvest.

The Market for Cherry Tomatoes is very select in El Ejido, Spain so being able to consistently produce high-quality fruits is very important for growers. Gabriel Fernandez farms ‘Juanita’ Cherry Tomatoes in wool rock via a hydroponic system and was searching for an alternative to their current biostimulant product which was soon to be unobtainable.

They decided to try Maxstim and compare the results.