the full article is attached for your benefit - big difference...

the full article is attached for your benefit - big difference between 0% and 12% incidence of blossom end rot!!!!

Fulvic-like product increased yield and decreased blossom end rot in tomatoes.

Karen LITTLEa* , William Roy JACKSON and Antonio PATTI School of Chemistry, Monash

University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia * Tel. +61-3-99054000; E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

keywords Lignite; oxidative hydrothermal dissolution; tomato; blossom end rot; calcium

Abstract

Fulvic acid products for agriculture are expensive to produce and despite having demonstrated improved plant growth and nutrient uptake benefits, are generally reserved for high value crops. Victorian lignite coal was subjected to a cost-efficient, oxidative hydrothermal dissolution (OHD) process and the resulting fulvic-like liquor of low molecular weight, water soluble compounds was applied to tomato plants at application rates of 10 and 20 L/ha. In glasshouse conditions, application of the OHD liquor at both rates increased flower and fruit numbers and increased fruit yield by approximately 49% with 10L/ha and 41% with 20L/ha application rates compared to the untreated control plants. Application of OHD liquor significantly decreased the incidence of blossom end rot (BER), caused by Ca deficiency in the fruit, with 12% of fruit affected with application of 10L/ha of OHD liquor compared to 65% from the untreated control plants. Plants treated with 10L/ha had significantly more Ca in the shoots with 1.0% (±0.0%) compared to 0.7% (±0.1%) in the untreated control plants. Our study has shown that application of the fulvic-like OHD liquor at 10L/ha can be used to increase the marketable tomato yield.

IHSS18-Little-Jackson-Patti.pdf