Preventing Blossom End Rot in Tomatoes with Ambiorix

Preventing Blossom End Rot in Tomatoes with Ambiorix: a Success Story

Horticulture The Netherlands
The next generation of iron fertigation is provided by iron complexed by polyphosphates, a technology which offers many advantages over chelates. Ambiorix, Roam Technology’s unique iron fertiliser does not only provide your crop with plant-available iron, but also with phosphorus and potassium. Furthermore, it enhances the uptake of cationic nutrients, such as calcium.
Preventing Blossom End Rot in Tomatoes with Ambiorix

The challenge

Intensive cultivation faces many challenges including the provision of sufficient macro- and micronutrients by fertilisers. If not, symptoms such as blossom end rot caused by a calcium deficiency can occur easily. However, supplementing your crop with those nutrients is one thing, but the formula and conditions they are in completely determine the final availability.

Furthermore, the constant disease pressure necessitates the use of disinfectant products or techniques which might affect the fertilisers. Ideally, a specific nutrient fertiliser transfers those nutrients to the plants in a range of conditions and is also compatible with different disinfectant methods. Ambiorix combines all these characteristics in one product.

The percentage of tomato fruits showing blossom end rot symptoms after treatment with Ambiorix or DTPA3%.

Our solution

To fully show the power of Ambiorix, a trial with tomatoes (Savantas) at the Botany was performed. Blossom end rot was induced in this trial to compare the effectiveness of Ambiorix and the often used DTPA  3% (iron chelate) in preventing this disorder. The use of Ambiorix as iron fertiliser resulted in a generally higher yield throughout the cultivation compared to the DTPA 3% treatment.

Moreover, the percentage of fruits with blossom end rot symptoms reduced significantly at every harvest. This indicates that Ambiorix, besides being an ideal source of iron, additionally enhances uptake of other cationic nutrients such as calcium.

Additionally, to show the full compatibility of Ambiorix with disinfectants, the University of Ghent compared the effect of UV+H2O2 and O3 on Ambiorix and other frequently used iron fertilisers. Clearly, Ambiorix is not affected by any of the disinfectant methods used, guaranteeing an effective disinfection without compromising the availability of iron.

Percentage of iron in solution after O3 treatment (A) and after H2O2 addition and UV treatment (B).

The conclusions

Ambiorix guarantees continuous availability of iron and essential nutrients, preventing quality-reducing symptoms like blossom end rot. Furthermore, O3 as well as a combination of H2O2 and UV treatment can be applied simultaneously with Ambiorix preventing the incidence and spread of harmful pathogens while providing the necessary iron and other nutrients.

  • Guaranteed transport of nutrients to the plants’ roots by the polyphosphates
  • Reduced risk of nutrient deficiencies
  • Iron fertiliser that can be combined with disinfectants throughout the cultivation
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Used products

Ambiorix is an innovative CE marked iron fertiliser based on polyphosphate technology. The product thereby ensures the availability of iron for your crops at all times.

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