Bluestim® improves shelf life of soft fruit crops

Soft fruit growers who use Bluestim® end up with fewer micro-cracks in their strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. What's important is that they spray each fruit - from flowering to harvest - once every three weeks.

Bluestim® has been part of Biobest's product range for several years now. “This natural and powerful product reduces the effects of abiotic stress. It does this by improving the transport of nutrients, including calcium. More calcium in the cell walls makes the fruit stronger and prevents micro-cracks. After harvesting, post-harvest pathogens, such as Botrytis, Mucor and Rhizopus, have a more difficult time invading. This makes the soft fruit firmer, resulting in a longer shelf life,” says Sarah Van Beneden, Group Product Manager at Biobest.

Spray every three weeks
The product is easy to apply. “It is important that growers spray the crop every three weeks, from the time of the first flowering through the last harvesting moment. This is the best way to prevent micro- and macro-cracking. We advise a dosage of 1.8 lb/acre (2 kg/ha),” explains Sarah. She emphasises that spraying is essential. “If growers introduce Bluestim® by dripping, less Bluestim® is left over for the plant. In that case, the micro-organisms in the soil consume it.”

Made from sugar beets
Bluestim® contains a high concentration of glycine betaine (more than 96%), a natural extract of sugar beets. With this fertilizer developed by Lallemand Plant Care, Biobest has seen good results in the cultivation of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Bluestim® is available in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Germany and Poland.

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