Focus Will Help Grower Wrap Up ‘25 Strong, Kick Off ‘26 Right

It’s important, regardless of commodity, growers focus on what they can control.  Trevor Sullens with Wilbur-Ellis said specialty crop growers can stay on track for the rest of the season, enhancing their ROI all while improving the bottom line.  Sullens said knowing the story of your soil is the best place to start, and then scout early and often.

"Biostimulant type products are very, they're gaining popularity," he noted.  "They're gaining speed in the marketplace. There's a lot of great stuff around those products, show a lot of really good results, you know, helping plants mitigate those stresses and things like that. But If you're gonna use those products, you can't always go out and reverse the stress or reverse, you know, the damage of a pathogen, or we'll just say an abiotic stress, something like that. You know, you need to be ahead of it.”

Sullens said it’s important to have that proactive philosophy, regardless the size of the operation.  When it comes to tree fruit, Sullens says Wilbur-Ellis is always looking at ways to help the grower, especially in this tight farm economy.

“We really try to help support our growers in crop load management, making sure that there is a right amount of crop or, and not too much crop on those trees to help reduce the labor costs, to help increase fruit size, fruit quality, things like that," Sullens said.  "If you think about a grower, they've got, 1000 things...so we really work to make, efficient, programs.”

Sullens said it’s also important for growers to take tissue samples, and not just guess.  And perhaps most importantly, he said it’s important to turn off emotions when making difficult decisions.

Sullens added with the wide variety of products and knowledge they have, often Wilbur-Ellis can help growers, even if some costs need to be cut.

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