CITRUS growers always have a close eye on their trees to help achieve the perfect balance between crop yield and quality.
For the Goldup family, their trees heading into winter are looking the best they ever have at this point in the year.
Glen Goldup and his wife, Kristi, grow mainly oranges, mandarins and lemons, plus some avocados, over their Nangiloc and Colignan properties, which comprise about 80 hectares including some natural bushland.
Like most growers, they realise many seasonal factors and different product applications can influence a crop.
But Mr Goldup said one of the most significant changes he had made this season was the business’ use of micronutrients.
Mr Goldup is generation No.3 in the business and some of their trees stretch back to 1960, today growing alongside others just three to four years of age.
He said their citrus production was generally exported to China, the US and Japan, while the avocados are packed on farm and sold into Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne – as well as Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Keeping all that in peak condition means the Goldups have a close focus on nutrition, particularly to avoid any annoying handling and downtime issues.
As a result, Mr Goldup said they had been careful to select quality fertilisers.
Mr Goldup said while their citrus yields can fluctuate, they aimed to average about 40 tonnes/ha of premium sized fruit (56 to 72mm) and were anticipating an “extremely good” crop this season.
“It’s about trying to keep things optimum all the time and it’s looking good,” he said.
“You don’t want to go to biannual bearing – you don’t want double bins one year and not the next.
“It’s a very heavy crop this year, the fruit size is very good and the quality is looking good – the skins are smoother.
“It’s certainly better than last year, when it was wet and overcast and the fruit was smaller.
“We feel our trees looked the best they ever have going into winter – and the happier they are going into winter, the happier they are going into spring.”
