The research

This AP19005 Project is being undertaken in the experimental pear orchard at Agriculture Victoria’s Tatura SmartFarm and in commercial orchards in the Goulburn Valley to:​

• Determine training system, planting density and rootstock effects on yield, fruit quality and irrigation requirements.
• Determine crop load relationships and investigate thinning to minimise biennial bearing and maximise fruit quality and yield (in collaboration with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture).
• Investigate the determinants of colour expression.
• Explore effects of alternate-side coloured hail netting to maximise fruit colour and minimise sun damage.
• Calibrate and validate a mobile sensing platform equipped with LiDAR and optical cameras (Green Atlas CartographerTM) to spatially measure tree size and fruit number, size and colour.
• Test sensing equipment (SwarmFarm Robotics) for spatially assessing flower phenology.

Access the AP19005 Information Sheet

Additional project resources:

Irrigation budgeting and seasonal planning tool for pear growers