0000000000760040
AUTHOR
I. Grutta
WITHIN TREE AND ORCHARD VARIABILITY OF SILVER KING PEACH (PRUNUS PERSICA (L.) BATSCH) FRUIT QUALITY
The variability of crop quality accounts for most of seasonal variation of farmers’ incomes, since fruit value mostlydepends on its size and overall quality. Canopy architecture and orchard lay-out are mainly responsible for within tree environment and allocation, which in turn, account for fruit quality and its variability. Little is known about within tree and between trees variability resulting from different planting and training systems. A positive relationship has been measured in peach between PAR and TEAC (Motisi et al., 2005; Scalzo et al., 2005; Motisi et al., 2008). This study was carried out to measure within tree and orchard variability of fruits of the early ripening ‘Silver K…
Canopy Architecture Appraisal by Fractal Dimension of 'Flordastar' Peach Trees Grafted onto Different Rootstocks
The objective of this research was to evaluate the modification of canopy architecture of ''Flordastar'' peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) grafted onto rootstocks with different vigour, by the use of fractal dimension (D). The hypothesis was that different vigour rootstocks are able to modify the complexity of the branching pattern and that this effect can be assessed by a geometric parameter such as the fractal dimension (D) of the 2D projection of tree branching structure. The observations were carried out in a four-year-old experimental orchard of cv. ''Flordastar'' peach trees grafted onto Ishtara, Barrier, GF677 and MrS 2/5 rootstocks. On digital pictures of leafless, dormant peach tree…
Development of a Sensor for Continuous and Accurate Monitoring of Air Flow for Open-System Whole Canopy Gas-Exchange Measurements
The research describes the development and set-up of a simple and accurate solid-state device for continuous monitoring of airflow forced into an open-flow gas-exchange chamber for whole-canopy transpiration and photosynthesis measurements. The ventilation system was formed by a centrifugal fan powered by an electric motor and a PVC pipe (0.193 m inner diameter). To damp airflow turbulence, 50 cm of the main pipe was filled with a bundle of smaller PVC pipes (3 cm inner diameter). The measurement principle of the sensor is the thermal balance of an electrically heated copper plate compared to an unheated one. Calibration of the sensor was performed by two independent methods: gas dilution (…