Some key components of producing high-quality fruit

November 2011 | Prepared by Stephen Tancred, Orchard Services | Future Orchards® Orchard Walk notes

Producing high-quality fruit requires a balance between yield and the orchard practices that protect market value. In these November 2011 Future Orchards® notes, Stephen Tancred of Orchard Services argues that growers should focus on both yield, which helps keep unit costs down, and quality, which helps maintain unit returns.

Tancred identifies nutrition, irrigation and pest and disease control as three in-season management areas with a major influence on quality. The notes connect specific market attributes with orchard determinants: colour is influenced by genetics, tree architecture, rootstock, pruning, netting and nutrition; fruit size is strongly linked to thinning, irrigation and nutrition; and maturity and Brix are influenced by light and nutrition.

The resource also highlights the avoidable causes of superficial bruising, healed skin injury, russet and pest or disease damage. Picker management and equipment affect bruising; pruning and netting can reduce limb rub and hail injury; spray choices and weather influence russet; and orchard hygiene, spray selection and application quality are central to pest and disease outcomes.

The practical value of the notes is their emphasis on managing the quality attributes that customers actually pay for. Rather than pursuing cost savings in isolation, the resource supports investment in orchard practices that lift both marketable yield and fruit value.