I am sure you are aware that at some stage of a growing season a crop can come under stress, whether the plant is a tree, cereal crop or vegetable crop.

These stresses can come from many sources. There may be environmental problems such as frost or excessive heat, a disease or attack from a pest. The collective impact of these problems is known as crop stress.

Part of the problem of crop stress is that it is often not visible to the farmer. The plant’s root system may be under attack from disease, for example, or have something unpleasant gnawing away at it. The plant’s natural defences will automatically kick in, of course, putting energy into battling the problem.

Unfortunately, that energy will not be used to help the crop to grow. Such crop stress may occur many times throughout a growing season.

The cumulative effect of these crop stresses is that your yield will be affected and that means less profit.

So, how can you protect from crop stress? That’s the subject of next month’s blog so come back and read it in June.