2014 ASHS Annual Conference

The Effects of a Soar® Peach and Soar® Bloom Foliar Applied Program on the Yield and Fruit Size of Peaches (cv. ‘Carored’) in Central Georgia David Moore, SE Ag Research Services; Aaron Wise, SE Ag Research Services; Eric Waldo, Chemical Dynamics, Inc. In most years, peach growers in Georgia and Florida receive higher prices for their fruit early in the season, but yields are often limited by early season fruit not reaching a marketable size. Consequently, growers are searching for methods to increase marketable yield and fruit size when growing early fruiting varieties. The application of Soar® micronutrients and biostimulants (Chemical Dynamics, Inc., Plant City, FL) to vegetable and fruit crops has been shown in previous studies to increase earliness, fruit set, and fruit size. This study was conducted to evaluate the yield response of peach (cv. ‘Carored’) to foliar-applied 'SOAR Bloom Spray' and 'SOAR Peach' programs. Soar®Peach and Soar® Bloom are micronutrient packages provided on a biostimulant platform engineered from seaweed extracts, humic acids, and fulvic acids. In the first year of this trial, 2013, the application of 'SOAR Bloom Spray' and 'SOAR Peach' based programs had a positive impact on peach yield. Yields were generally 40% greater in treated plots compared to untreated plots. The increase in yield was due to more marketable fruits being harvested. SOAR products also hastened maturity considerably. Only 11% of the total yield in untreated plots was collected on the first two harvest dates, while 26-44% of total yield in treated plots was collected on the first two harvest dates. (Soar® is a registered trademark of Chemical Dynamics, Inc., Plant City, FL)