September marks a new start to the campaign in Almería, in this issue with the main theme on the late cucumber, it is worth highlighting the importance of improving the plant’s defensive plant system, since our crops do not always develop in optimal and ideal conditions.

The development of the crop can be affected by biotic factors (action of living beings) or abiotic (action of physical and chemical factors such as drought, heat, cold, nutritional deficiencies or phytotoxicities, etc).

Faced with external stresses, the plant develops resistance mechanisms that help it fight these factors, avoid them and continue with their development, although sometimes they do affect it negatively. In order to reduce the damage caused by external agents, increase the resistance of crops against stress and help them in their recovery, there is the biostimulant SPIRALIS Long Life and SPIRALIS ECO Long Life, the fruits of an innovative line of R + D + i of Cultifort: Natural Defensive Biotechnology.

Cucumbers treated with Spiralis Eco Long Life in Almeria, Spain

This fertilizer, in its conventional and ecological format, acts mainly in a preventive and regenerative way. It induces and potentiates a local and systemic endogenous increase in molecules with high defensive capacity, that is, it produces a bioprotective effect against external stress factors. The endogenous defensive molecules synthesized induce structural changes in the cell walls of plants at the level of their lignification, constituting a physical barrier against the different stress factors.

In addition to improving the defensive capacity of the plant, SPIRALIS Long Life and SPIRALIS ECO Long Life significantly improve post-harvest life by protecting the fruits against rotting, degradation or other alterations.

The state-of-the-art formulation with molecules highly compatible with plant tissues allows their total and immediate absorption (between 1 and 8 hours) in the route of synthesis of molecules with high defensive capacity and protection can last several weeks, recommending its use every 10-15 days from the start of the crop for best results.

In trials carried out in Almería during the 2017-2018 campaign, with weekly applications of SPIRALIS Long Life / SPIRALIS ECO Long Life (T1 at a dose of 300 cc / hl and T2 at a dose of 500 cc / hl) from the start of cultivation in Dutch cucumber (variety SV091), increases have been achieved in the size and weight of the fruits, specifically 18.6% on the thickness of the cucumbers and 26.8% on their weight.

Taking into account that in the 2017-2018 campaign, the average cucumber production in Almería was 8.7 kg / m2 (Source: Yearbook of Agrarian Statistics 2018. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development. Junta de Andalucía) and that the average price at origin was € 0.55 / kg (Source: Observatory of prices and markets. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development. Junta de Andalucía), the use of SPIRALIS Long Life / SPIRALIS ECO Long Life represented an increase of 2.3 kg / m2 and 1.3 € / m2 in productive and economic terms, respectively.