MARTIGNANI: BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS IN THE APPLE TREE

Martignani, for a greener world, has always been a company with a great sensitivity to the sustainability and the search for the right balance between the crop protection and the decrease of the environmental impact. Indeed, one of the main strengths of the treatments realized with Martignani’ s electrostatic sprayer is the considerable reduction of at least 40% of the pesticides and the decrease between 80 and 90% of water. This is due to the low volume and the technology of the micro droplets, combined with the electrostatic charge, that guarantee a uniform and precise coverage without waste and run-off.

From this point of view, Martignani is the right partner in biological treatments.

Martignani and the treatments in the apple tree

Martignani electrostatic sprayers are suitable for every type of crop and treatment, also for the biological one. In the case of the apple tree, Martignani has always been one of the main allies to fight the scab, a disease caused by a fungus, which can produce serious damages to all production if the right control measures are not applied.

Apple scab spots appears in all parts of the plants, from the leaves to the fruit or to the branches. Infections are visible because they are darker, as if they had spots. Then, the leaves with scab become dry and fall prematurely, leaving the plants partially bare.

There are different ways to fight this disease of the apple tree, from the chemical products to the soil treatments. With Martignani sprayers it is possible to realize soil treatments, with lacto-ferments, to prevent the disease without the need for chemical products.

Biological company Ecoter, in Romagna, has got 17 hectares of apple trees (13,5 hectares of Fuji apple trees and 3,5 of gala apple trees) and it has been using Martignani sprayers for treatments from years. One of the supervisors of the company, the agrotechnician Fabiano Cornacchia, explains that “we also realize soil treatments, both against the cryptogams and against insects, at different spray rates from 300 l/hectare to 1000 l/hectare”.

In comparison with the apple scab, Cornacchia confirms that it is the main adversity of the apple tree and he considers that “products for the defence in the biological field request low spray pressure (Martignani works at 1.5 bar)” because otherwise, the high pressure of the conventional sprayers, could damage microorganisms”.

Moreover, he also says that the main advantages of the treatments realized with Martignani sprayers are “a perfect coverage thanks to the uniform airflow and to the optimal dimension of the droplets, a simple use thanks to the precision metering valves, that have to be calibrated according to the speed, row spacing and volume of water that you want to use, and the ease of use of the machine”.  

Another advantage you can obtain with the treatments realized with Martignani electrostatic sprayers is an important time savings, “thanks to the concentration of the biological products, that is impossible with conventional sprayers, and the uniformity of distribution that leaves funguses without safety”.

From Romagna to Trentino

Talking about the biological apple tree we move to Mezzocorona, in the province of Trento, where the Pellegrini farm is , Martignani’ s clients from 1985. The farm is run by the brothers Corrado and Roberto Pellegrini, together with their father Emilio.

Currently, they own 9 hectares of apple trees and 8,5 hectares of vineyards and to treat their production they use Martignani sprayers Whirlwind M612 Turbo 1 (for the vineyard) and Whirlwind M612 Sudtirol (for the orchards).

We talked to Corrado Pellegrini, one of the farm owners and the first thing that he points out to us is that one of their machines, the Whirlwind M612 Turbo 1, was bought in 1992 and after almost 30 years and just with “some little maintenance works” it continues to work “in a dignified manner”.

The Pellegrini farm is a biological reality, realizes treatments with products of natural origin, not synthetic, for the defence of the fruit diseases, especially for the apple scab with Martignani sprayer Whirlwind M612 Sudtirol.

Corrado Pellegrini finds the humour in this, saying that “I grew up with bread, milk and Martignani, because I have always seen it in my house. My father has always used it and we continue to do it, because for me it is the ONLY machine that really works with low volume”.

Pellegrini points out the simplicity of function of the Martignani electrostatic sprayers.

“Accustomed to the simple maintenance and use of the Martignani’ s machines, then to work with other machines isn’t easy because you have to think more.” Moreover, he adds that, “with regards to the speed of work and execution it is the only one that satisfies our requests (Pellegrini company realizes treatments to apple trees at 7-8 km/h)”.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, one of the main advantages (also more sustainable and greener) of the use of Martignani Electrostatic sprayers is the very important saving of water (between 80 and 90%). Pellegrini company uses 140 l/hectare of water during the treatments of apple trees (120 l/hectare in the vineyard), whereas there are many companies that, employing conventional sprayers, use 1000 l/hectare. About this, Corrado Pellegrini says that “all people recommend using high volumes because in their opinion you cover better and you obtain a better wetting, but it isn’t true. We have been doing treatments from years using a lot less water and, thanks to the low volume of Martignani sprayers, we have never had any type of problem neither of obstruction and this is a huge advantage, not only for the saving of water, but also of time, because we have to fill up less times and we prepare the mixtures taking less time”. Pellegrini adds that “having to do less refills, also we as producers/operators are less exposed.”

Pellegrini finishes showing a great satisfaction for the result obtained with Martignani electrostatic sprayers in the treatments: “we save water, time and money, because in farming time is money and if we add the saving in the use of products, it is even higher”.