The Horticultural Development Company (HDC) is launching a new Best Practice Guide into apple growing as it looks to aid the industry.
The last such guide was published by DEFRA in 2001 at a considerable cost, but this new online guide, set to launch next month, will be hosted on the HDC website.
The new guide will advise growers under section headings of agronomy, integrated pest management, harvesting and post-harvest.
It will be free to use for HDC members and looks to specifically tackle issues such as flowering, fruit thinning, storage problems and storm monitoring among many elements.
Andrew Tinsley, HDC technical and communications manager, told freshinfo: “The guide really covers everything from growing to post harvest - it doesn’t matter too much when in the year you read it, as it will always be relevant.
“It will be accessible when growers are out in the fields, via mobile phones, and can be cross referenced easily, in terms of pests, while out and about.”
Guides to stonefruit and an update to the current best practice information on pear production are thought to be the most likely to be made available.
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