Spain leads quest for consistent fruit quality

摘要

Riverland citrus industry development officer, Kym Thiel, and four members of the Solora South growing and packing team, visited the east coast region of Spain on a study tour in early November, 2003. Spain is regarded a world leader in citrus, producing six million tonne annually. Poor soil and limited water availability has forced the Spaniards to look for innovative growing practices including multiple fertigation units and open hydroponic systems. Mr Thiel said on most Spanish farms, trees were grown on raised mounds irrigated by drip line. "All the medium to large producers we visited had advanced fertigation units in place. It was not uncommon to walk into a shed and see three or four tanks of chemicalsutrients and facilities for pH buffering and EC monitoring to check the compatibility and solubility of liquids automatically injected into the irrigation system," he said.