Southern Cross Farms is managing Imperial and Afourer mandarins and various navel oranges, grapefruit and lemons across 200ha near Nangiloc.
The trees range in age from five years up to 30 years and the fruit is processed through a local packhouse in Mildura.
Danny Turner, who manages the trees for Southern Cross Farms, says some of the latest techniques have been adopted to assist a more holistic management approach.
The property sits on mostly loamy land and limestone country, with some river flats and heavy land.
In addition to regular soil testing, which has indicated strong iron requirement for the high pH soils, leaf analysis also is collected every March to guide future seasons. Latest tests have once again identified low zinc and manganese levels, which will be addressed with applications in December.
Danny says albedo breakdown in the fruit was another issue on the property during a recent season and has prompted good use of calcium to toughen rinds.
An upgrade from using overhead sprinklers to complete drip irrigation, fed from the Murray River and controlled via a MAIT Industries system, has significantly advanced fertigation across the property, particularly of zinc and manganese, saving time and money, as well as limiting nutrient leaching.
Danny says the latest use of mapping technology two to three times per season, looking at NDVI and chlorophyl, provides further information on tree health, sizing and tree structure and fruit size.
He says they follow a monthly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) program, fertigated once a week, and they apply zinc, manganese and iron throughout the season.
“A little bit often is the go. We use a lot of Haifa Multi-K, MKP and MAP, and the use of Haifa’s zinc, manganese and iron through the drip now has been great,” Danny explains.
“The Haifa products are much more refined and so mix heaps better, and if you can manage your applications right, it can mean hundreds of dollars per tonne difference in the end,” he says.
“As markets have changed, growing has changed and so we have pushed the nutrition. We have used Haifa’s Poly-Feed fertiliser as well.
“You are always chasing the perfect ratio. In an ideal scenario, if we can hit the sweet spot, we will have 70 per cent plus fruit in first grade.”
In addition to its fertigation, Haifa Multi-K also has been sprayed to assist fruit sizing, while applications of the foliar potassium fertiliser, Haifa Bonus, will continue as well, particularly for the mandarins.
“Mandarins use more water than a navel tree and they need everything you can give them to get them to size.” Danny adds.
He says the fertigation of Haifa’s zinc chelated nutrient had been “a game-changer” after previous foliar applications of zinc sulphate, its EDDHA iron product always produced improvements and he likes the easy use of these nutrients supplied in Haifa’s specially-produced buckets.
Brayden Long with Nangiloc Ag Supplies (NAS), which supports Southern Cross Farms with its fertiliser requirements for the property, says the Haifa fertiliser range had instant credibility and was well trusted by growers throughout the region.
He says there had recently been a lot of enthusiasm for Haifa’s buckets of micronutrients and the benefits of applying products like zinc through drip irrigation systems.
“It’s a lot easier to apply zinc over 200ha through the drip than by foliar sprays – and it’s resulting in less passes and machinery hours,” Brayden says.
“Growers can also still do a foliar zinc application if needed for rapid corrective action.”
Danny also uses various fertilisers to aid tree health and recovery from stresses on the Nangiloc property and is increasing the use of biological products such as Phyllum Plus, an ascophyllum nodosum seaweed that is exclusively available through NAS.
For a wetter portion of the property, Danny is interested in trialling Haifa’s controlled release fertiliser technology to assess if it can allow nutrient rates to be increased in the area.
