The 6th International Soft Fruit Conference organised by DLV Plant and BVB Substrates is to be held in ‘s Hertogenbosch, on 7th January. This has quickly become the must go to event for soft fruit growers in north western Europe linking as it does a technical programme with an adjacent trade show which are followed by visits to key producers.
The Conference programme plans to cover soft fruit production in Spain and Morocco; quality and production of strawberry in tunnels; biology, behaviour and control of Drosophila suzukii in Northern Italy; handling plastic films and influence of day length and temperature on ever-bearers along with flower mapping in practice. The role of calcium in fruit production is also on the agenda.
New opportunities for Amblydromalus limonicus for controlling thrips and whitefly in strawberry crop; biological disease control in raspberry and molecular testing of soft fruit plant material will be discussed. For cane fruit producers raspberry plant health maintenance after storage and analysis and performance of raspberry plants after storage will be featured along with tissue culture of blackberry and blackberry variety development.
The field trip on the day following the conference, 8th January, is open to conference delegates only and will visit two farms close to Breda. For more details visit the website: www.softfruitconference.com/