PIPS3 update: Advancing sustainable and technology driven apple orchard production systems (AP19003)

The PIPS3 Program’s Advancing sustainable and technology driven apple orchard production systems (AP19003) project presents on the initial findings of year one of the three-year research project. 

Alessio Scalisi, Senior Technical Officer for Agriculture Victoria, provides a brief update of the research being undertaken in the Sundial Orchard at the Tatura SmartFarm, and in a commercial setting in partnership with Plunkett Orchards.   

The project is conducting research to: 

• Investigate relationships between fruit position and light exposure on colour development, sunburn damage, fruit quality and floral initiation. 
• Determine the effects of crop load on yield, return bloom, fruit quality and maturity. 
• Identify chemical signals that impact floral initiation and differentiation, and hence biennial bearing. 
• Develop a rapid orchard assessment tool using a ground-based mobile sensing platform to measure and map flower cluster number, fruit number, fruit size, fruit colour and tree size, and advise on crop load distribution in an orchard. 

After the first season, the project has made some interesting new discoveries to be further investigated and confirmed over the next two seasons. These include: 

• Fruit position and light exposure strongly influence fruit quality parameters. 
• Significant changes in bud flavonoids were observed in response to crop load. 
• Green Atlas Cartographer can reliably estimate flower and fruit number, tree geometry and light interception, and fruit diameter. 

The combined activities of the project provide increased knowledge on ways to maximise packout yield, reduce labour inputs and potentially improve water, nutrient and chemical spray efficiency. The practical outcomes for growers are immense from the research activities. To single out only one, accurate spatial variability mapping of clustering will assist in planning labour for thinning management.  

 Visit the AP19003 page to learn more.

Related AP19003 Videos  

Introducing the capabilities of Green Atlas Cartographer.

Crop load experiments and the use of Green Atlas Cartographer at Plunkett Orchards. 

Acknowledgements: The PIPS3 Program’s Advancing sustainable and technology driven apple orchard production systems (AP19003) project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the apple and pear research and development levy, contributions from the Australian Government and co-investment from Agriculture Victoria. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.