5. Pruning rules:
1.Remove all lateral wood (leave short stubs)
2.Renew vigorous uprights (leave renewal sites)
Simplified Pruning of the UFO System:
6. Mechanical pruning
Simplified planar systems simplify pruning
Investigated potential for mechanical
pruning in UFO since 2010
7. Collard system
7 (vertical) or 4 (horizontal) circular saw blades
6-th leaf UFO
Hand vs. Mech. Vs. Mech + hand
Mechanical pruning
8. CONCLUSIONS
Hand pruning
2 min 40 s per tree (1800 trees/ha = 80 hr/ha)
Full mechanical pruning:
12.5-times faster (6.5 hr/ha)
Removed ca. 60% less wood than hand pruning
Mechanical + hand pruning:
25% faster than hand pruning
Same amount of wood removed as hand pruning
Good potential to reduce pruning time/costs using mechanical
systems.
10. Mechanical pruning
Gillisons GVF Center Mount
Topper and Hedger
Side shift ca. 1 .2 m on
either side of the tractor
Height adjustment of 1 m to
6.5 m
360属 rotation of cutting head
19. Example
Sweet cherry orchard trained to
UFO training system
Spacing: 2 m x 3.1 m
8 h work/day
Mechanical pruning:
2.5 h/ac
3.2 ac/day
Hand pruning:
55 h/ac
0.14 ac/day
20. Mechanical pollination
Colony collapse disorder,
variable environmental
conditions, poor bloom
overlap, insufficient
pollenizers/pollinators all
threaten ability to set a crop
For yield security and resilience to:
8.2 t/ha
21. Proposed solution:
Collect pollen
Suspend pollen
Apply pollen via sprayer
Challenges:
Stigma is a small target!
Pollen loses viability in liquid
25. Mechanical pollination
a
b
Proof of concept study
Supplemental pollination
Sprayed pollen once at 50% bloom
Fruit set improved 15%
Increased pollen deposition
26. Mechanical pollination
Proof of concept study
Replacement pollination
Sprayed pollen through bee
exclusion netting
Two applications (50% and 90%
)
Yield similar to open-pollinated trees
a
b
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Control Treated
Fruityield(kg/tree)
33. Kordia in Tasmania
Treatment Fruit set (%) Fruit wt (g) Cracked fruit
(%)
Control 9.7 a 14.5 b 25.1 b
AVG 500 g/ha 15.3 b 12.9 a 14.0 a
(ca. 他 pouch/ac)
Rate of AVG ns ns ns
Time of
application
ns ns ns
Collaboration with Dugald Close, Sally Bound; UTas
Increasing fruit set
36. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Control Retain: 30 %
FB
Retain: 65 %
FB
Retain: 30 &
65 % FB
FruitSet(%)
AVG Improves Regina Fruit Set
Surfactant 0.1% v:v
Rate 1 pouch per ac
Timing between 10 to 80% of full bloom
Data from Todd Einhorn, OSU