Search results for "light interception"

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…

Influence of row orientation on the canopy temperature of Sicilian vineyards

2021

Row orientation can have significant effects on grape quality as it directly affects the exposure of the fruits with indirect consequences on wine quality. In this study, a Flir i7 thermal camera was used to measure the temperature of both canopy sides of a ‘Sauvignon blanc’ vineyard trained to vertical shoot position and with north-south (NS) and east-west (EW) row orientations. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) measurements using a 0.8-m sensor bar were taken along with the thermal imaging camera measurements. Considering both row orientations, south and east canopy sides were those that intercepted the greatest radiant energy during the day, 57.7 and 47.5%, respectively. The EW r…

Effects of canopy covering on yield and quality of ‘Nero d’Avola’ (Vitis vinifera L.) grown in hot-arid climate condition

The impact of climate change on grapevine ecophysiology and vineyard management is predicted to be a serious problem in the next years. In fact, it has an influence on the fruit-set, yield, and in modulating decoupling between technological and phenolic ripening. Thus, it is essential to identify costeffective and easy-to-implement solutions to deal with the issue. For this purpose, the present study aims to test different shade treatments (ST) applied directly to the canopy of ′Nero d’Avola′ cultivar (Vitis vinifera L.), trying to limit the excess of light and heat that, usually occur in hot-arid climate areas as in Sicily. Two ST were imposed during the 2020 vegetative season from fruit s…