Growing for your market — vigour management

May 2011 | AgFirst | Australian Fruitgrower article

This article links vigour management directly to the market outcomes growers are trying to achieve: fruit size, colour, packout and reliable cropping.

Vegetative growth is necessary to maintain productive fruiting wood, but too much growth shades fruit and buds and increases the amount of labour required for pruning and canopy correction. The target is a balanced tree with enough renewal growth without allowing the canopy to dominate the crop.

Crop load, pruning, branch position, irrigation and nitrogen management all influence that balance. Decisions therefore need to be made as a connected system rather than by treating vigour as a single-operation problem.

The article reinforces the Future Orchards® approach of managing trees against measurable market and productivity targets.