What’s New

SST Broadacre products: For the best result in any situation!

At SST, we have Broadacre covered! 

Please contact your local sales representative for more information, or download our brochure here

SST Export to China

While many businesses are looking towards winding down for the Christmas break, SST is just getting started. This month we hit a big milestone – we proudly sent our first shipment of product to China.

Entering a new market with agricultural adjuvants takes considerable work behind the scenes. The strength, diversity and quality of the SST business was the natural driver behind our focus to grow into China, and our distribution partner, Xi’an Raylinn Agricultural Science and Technology Co Ltd, has allowed us to focus in major agricultural provinces with key customers looking for quality Australian produced technologies.

In further developments, SST has engaged the global expertise of British Columbia based field consultant, Ashley Freeman to conduct trials for Waiken™ in the Yunnan Province with local orchard and vineyard growers to help them provide greater control over bud break, flowering and time of maturity. Sophistication of the Chinese Agricultural market continues to develop and SST is at the forefront.

Businesses that export are more profitable, more productive, and have stronger growth prospects, and at SST we are looking forward to not only being a trusted partner in Australia and New Zealand, but in China and beyond.

Disease Management Strategy in Nut Crops

According to Grochem Australia, Viti-Wet, a “soft” non-aggressive, non-ionic wetting agent, is essential to maintaining crop safety and improving coverage in Australian nut crops.

Read more in the Grochem Disease and Insect Management Strategy brochure here. 

Inaugural WA Lawn Expo

Want to learn how to have a fantastic lawn all year round? Head to the inaugural WA Lawn Expo, that will be held at South Metropolitan TAFE on Saturday 27th October 2018. Plenty of hints and tips from professionals on lawn care, and lots of give-aways, including SST’s market leading wetting agent range! Follow the Turf Growers Association WA on Facebook 

Control bud break and flowering with Waiken

Application of Waiken gives cherry and apple growers greater control over bud break, flowering and time of maturity.

Waiken induces a period of dormancy after which the flowers come out fairly rapidly and uniformly.

This means it can be used as a management tool to:

• bring forward or set back bud break to help align flowering across varieties to achieve cross pollination
• bring forward or set back bud break to stagger maturity to improve productivity at maturity and harvesting
• compact the flowering period to significantly improve the effect of chemical thinning treatments and improve productivity at picking
• promote limb growth in young fruit trees.

Thanks to its proprietary chemistry, Waiken allows growers to capitalise on more profitable early markets. Depending on when it is applied, Waiken can be used to bring forward or delay bud break.

Generally speaking:

• to advance bud break, apply 35–50 days before bud break would normally occur
• to set back bud break, apply from 20 days before bud break would normally occur, up to the time of green tip.

Tips to improve effectiveness:

• Fruit trees have a cyclic crop load from year to year – heavy, light, heavy, etc. Waiken compacts flowering, so care needs to be taken if using primary thinners when a light crop is expected. An application of primary thinners such as NAA, Ethrel or ATS in this situation could severely limit fruit set and crop load. Secondary thinners such as Cylex are a safer alternative as the decision to thin is made later, when fruit set is visible.
• Ensure that sufficient pollinators and bees are available. This is very important as a reduced flowering period could result in reduced fruit set if the weather is unfavourable during this time.
• In the first year, carry out limited trials. Apply Waiken at two different timings and two rates. This provides important information to enable optimum timing and rates for subsequent seasons.
• The recommended rate is 4% on apples and cherries. Water volume should be sufficient to obtain good coverage of the buds to the point of run off. This generally requires 1000 –2000 L/ha of water for apples and cherries.

Waiken is an emulsified vegetable oil compound. Other tools available for manipulating bud break include common chemical rest breaking agents such as hydrogen cyanamide which have a higher toxicity rating.

To learn more contact: martyn@sstaustralia.com