Ultrasol® and Speedfol® increased farmers' net income in tomato processing.

SQMC (Soquimich Comercial) initiated a 3-year trial work with Agrozzi, the largest tomato processing company in Chile, "in order to increase tomato processing yields by testing different irrigation systems with respect to water supply, extraction curves and fertilization programs" states Claudio Valdés, Agronomist Engineer, M.Sc. at SQMC. Applications During the 2006-2007 season, a trial was conducted comparing SQMC's Specialty Plant Nutrition program - with Ultrasol® and Speedfol® products (Tables 1 and 2) - with the traditional program carried out by a farmer. This trial was carried out in the Sagrada Familia area of Curicó. Each test area consisted of one hectare with 35,000 plants (1.4 * 0.2 m² / plot). The plots were harvested and analyzed by Agrozzi. Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA, LSD at <0.05. Table 1. SQMC soil applications

Table 2. Foliar applications of SQMC

Results Yield increased by 32% (25 MT / ha) when Ultrasol® products were used, compared to the farmer's traditional program. The addition of Speedfol® to the Ultrasol® program added another 7 MT / ha compared to the Ultrasol®-only program (Table 3). The highest average fruit weight was obtained when applying a combination of Ultrasol® and Speedfol® (Table 4). The addition of Ultrasol® applications resulted in a higher percentage of ripe fruit (Table 5). The Ultrasol® program increased the farmer's net income by US$ 656 per ha. The program in which both Ultrasol® and Speedfol® were applied performed even better: the farmer's net income increased by 1,054 US $/ha (Table 6). Table 3.

Table 4.

Table 5.

Table 6.