Advanced tree training for orchard efficiency — slides

August 2025 | Dr Alberto Dorigoni, Trento/Friuli, Italy | Future Orchards® presentation slides

These slides accompany Alberto Dorigoni’s presentation on advanced tree training for orchard efficiency. They compare modern narrow-canopy approaches and show how multi-leader systems can increase canopy uniformity and make pruning, thinning, spraying and harvesting more repeatable.

The material places particular emphasis on Guyot-style systems, where leaders are trained from cordons and spaced to create a planar fruiting wall. This allows fruiting wood to be renewed close to the structural framework, improves visibility and supports precise crop-load decisions.

Narrow, two-dimensional canopies also create opportunities for mechanisation, including hedging, mechanical thinning and leaf removal. Dorigoni’s broader work shows that the higher early training input can be offset by lower tree numbers and improved labour efficiency once the system is established.

Growers still need to match the system to cultivar, rootstock, soil fertility and available machinery. The slides are therefore best used as a design reference when comparing the capital and labour trade-offs of modern high-density orchard systems.