Search results for " Orchard"
showing 10 items of 45 documents
Horticultural performance of 23 Sicilian olive genotypes in hedgerow systems: Vegetative growth, productive potential and oil quality
2017
Abstract The super high density (SHD) model is a new olive growing system characterized by earlier and higher yields, fully mechanized harvesting and reduced orchard management costs. Until recently all commercial SHD orchards were planted primarily with three varieties: ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. To increase variety diversity, broaden available olive oil chemical and organoleptic profiles, and olive oils for marketing, minor local varieties should be evaluated for adaptability to the SHD system. This study compares multiple Sicilian native genotypes to the three current cultivars ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. The cumulative fruit and oil production, trunk-cross sec…
Can Mating Disruption Be a Possible Route to Control Plum Fruit Moth in Mediterranean Environments?
2020
Simple Summary Grapholita funebrana is a main pest of plum throughout the Palearctic region. The management of this pest is generally carried out with chemical insecticides. In this study we investigated the suitability of the mating disruption as alternative method of control of this pest. Experiments were carried out in organic plum orchards during 2012 and 2014. Trap catches and fruit sampling were carried out to estimate the efficacy of this technique in reducing males catch and fruit infestation. The results indicated that the males caught in traps placed in the treatment plots was always significantly lower than untreated plots. The chemical analysis of the pheromone emission from the…
Validation of an online system for the continuous monitoring of tree water status for sustainable irrigation managements in olive (Olea europaea L.)
2016
Abstract As a result of climate change a large reduction of agricultural water through improved irrigation management is a major need for agriculture sustainability. To this aim, always more sensitive sensors to monitor plant water status have been developed in recent years. Among them, the leaf patch clamp pressure probes are very promising for water management of olive but until now have been tested only in few environmental and management conditions. In this work these sensors have been tested for two consecutive years on two completely different management systems: a traditional rainfed orchard and a super high density (SHD) drip irrigated orchard. Within the SHD orchard the probes have…
EFFECTIVENESS OF SPINOSAD AND MINERAL OIL BASED COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS ON OVIPOSITION AND EGG HATCHING OF GRAPHOLITA FUNEBRANA TREITSCHKE
2018
Laboratory trials were performed to evaluate the action of spinosad and mineral oil on eggs of Grapholita funebrana Treitschke, the key pest in plum orchards. Fruits of cultivars Angeleno, President and Stanley were used in the trials. The first set of tests was carried out by introducing two mated females of G. funebrana into a cage together with fruits of a single cultivar. The second set of trials tested the three cultivars simultaneously. In all trials, one third of the fruits of each cultivar was treated with mineral oil, another third with spinosad and the final third was left untreated. Treatments were carried out before introducing mated females into the cages. The number of fruits …
Planting Systems for Modern Olive Growing: Strengths and Weaknesses
2021
The objective of fully mechanizing olive harvesting has been pursued since the 1970s to cope with labor shortages and increasing production costs. Only in the last twenty years, after adopting super-intensive planting systems and developing appropriate straddle machines, a solution seems to have been found. The spread of super-intensive plantings, however, raises serious environmental and social concerns, mainly because of the small number of cultivars that are currently used (basically 2), compared to over 100 cultivars today cultivated on a large scale across the world. Olive growing, indeed, insists on over 11 million hectares. Despite its being located mostly in the Mediterranean countr…
Transpiration and Water Use of an Irrigated Traditional Olive Grove with Sap-Flow Observations and the FAO56 Dual Crop Coefficient Approach
2021
The SIMDualKc model was applied to evaluate the crop water use and the crop coefficient (Kc) of an irrigated olive grove (Olea europaea L.) located in Sicily, Italy, using experimental data collected from two crop seasons. The model applies the FAO56 dual Kc approach to compute the actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc act) and its components, i.e., the actual tree transpiration (Tc act), obtained through the basal crop coefficient (Kcb), and soil evaporation according to an evaporation coefficient (Ke). Model calibration was performed by minimizing the difference between the predicted Tc act and the observed daily tree transpiration measured with sap flow instrumentation (TSF field) acquired…
Effects of temperature and pollination site on pollen performance in Betula pendula Roth – evidence for genotype-environment interactions
2000
We studied whether the differences between genetically different pollen donors (Betula pendula Roth clones) with respect to pollen-tube growth rate were consistent under different thermal conditions during pollen germination in vivo and in vitro. We conducted a single-donor hand-pollination experiment with same pollen donors and recipients in a plastic house seed orchard and at an outdoor clone collection. The prevailing daily mean temperature during pollen germination was 13°C higher in the plastic house than outdoors. The pollen-tube growth rate of each pollen donor was additionally determined in vitro on agar medium at five temperatures (10°, 15°, 22°, 30° and 35°C). A significant intera…
Do pollen donors with fastest-growing pollen tubes sire the best offspring in an anemophilous tree,Betula pendula(Betulaceae)?
2001
The relationship between pollen and progeny performance has been a subject of many studies but the evidence for pollen-tube growth rate as an indicator of progeny fitness is equivocal. We used an anemophilous tree, Betula pendula, to examine the relationship between pollen-tube growth rate and seed and seedling performance. We crossed nine maternal plants with pollen from six pollen donors in a clonal B. pendula seed orchard, measured the pollen-tube growth rates for every cross, and analyzed the performance of the resulting seeds and seedlings. The only significant positive correlation was found between pollen-tube growth rate and seed mass when we controlled for seed number per infloresce…
Pollen‐tube growth rate and seed‐siring success among Betula pendula clones
1999
The aim of this study was to investigate whether genetically different pollen donors (Betula pendula clones) differed in pollen-tube growth rate across 11 maternal plants and in vitro, and whether the differences between the donors were consistent across the recipients. To compare the seed-siring success of competing pollen donors, a two-donor hand-pollination experiment with six donors and six recipients was conducted. The experiments were performed at a plastic-house seed orchard. The donors showed significant variation in pollen-tube growth rate on all the 11 recipients. The rankings of the pollen donors were statistically consistent across different maternal plants. A significant positi…
Simulation of citrus orchard reflectance by means of a geometrical canopy model
1994
Computer simulation of the reflectance for citrus crops, by using a geometrical canopy model, has been carried out to analyse and interpret the reflectance values from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM...