Marya Hashmatt

Citation

Thesis Title
Effects of soil & foliar nutrient application strategies for improving fruit quality for 'Zesy002' kiwifruit

The nutrient fertiliser application is used as a tool to improve plant health and fruit quality in horticulture. Extensive work in nutrient management has been conducted on kiwifruit varieties such as ‘Hayward’ and ‘Hort16A,’ however there has been less known about the newly commercialised kiwifruit cultivar ‘Sungold.’ Ms Hashmatt’s objective was to optimise the sustainable production of high-quality ‘Sungold’ fruits by using nutrient fertilisers. She employed knowledge of nutrients and their roles in plant health and fruit development as well as different strategies to prevent negative interaction between nutrients. Ms Hashmatt reported that the spatial and temporal separation of nutrient fertilisers significantly prevented the negative interaction between them and demonstrated improvements in vine/plant health and fruit quality. She reported that the targeted application of nutrient fertilisers increased the photosynthetic performance of vines/plants. Her strategies also produced larger fruit with high fruit dry matter concentration and soluble solids which translates to increased gains and longer storage life of the fruit.

Supervisors
Dr Huub Kerckhoffs
Dr Allan Morton
Dr David Armour
Dr Mary Black
Professor Julian Heyes