Vigour management 2009 — notes

September 2009 | AgFirst | Future Orchards® Orchard Walk notes

These Orchard Walk notes set out practical principles for managing tree vigour in intensive apple orchards.

The focus is on maintaining a productive balance between vegetative growth and cropping. Excess vigour can reduce light distribution, fruit colour and flower-bud quality, while insufficient growth limits renewal and future bearing surface.

The notes encourage growers to diagnose the causes of strong growth before choosing a treatment. Crop load, pruning severity, nitrogen, water supply, rootstock and branch angle all influence the response of the tree.

Vigour management is therefore presented as an integrated seasonal program rather than a single corrective operation.