A joint research project involving Zespri/KVH, Plant & Food Research and Syngenta, has shown that kiwifruit vines are responsive to post-harvest applications of Actigard.

Genes that are understood to activate the vine’s natural defence were “switched on” soon after application, for both early and late harvest Hayward vines, with response patterns similar for both sites. This suggests treatment date did not impact the post-harvest Actigard response.

The effect was similar to that seen for spring applications, with gene up-regulation highest after six days, confirming it takes five to seven days to fully activate the natural plant response after a post-harvest application of Actigard.

Work on Gold3 will be undertaken this autumn to add further knowledge. Evidence of a carry-over response into the following spring, was also investigated in the research trial, but results were not conclusive. Further work to answer this question is included in this year’s trials.

The full report is available on the KVH website here.