Search results for "orchard"

Detecting crop irrigation status in orchard canopies with airborne and ASTER thermal imagery

2007

This work provides a description of the research conducted to assess if ASTER satellite data enable the detection of the water status in orchard tree crops. Summer and winter TERRA-ASTER images were acquired over a study area of Seville in southern Spain over a 6-year period. 1076 olive orchards were monitored in this area, obtaining field location, area, tree density, and irrigation status information. Surface temperature images were obtained using the TES method and 0.5 m resolution panchromatic ortho-rectified imagery collected over the entire area to obtain vegetation cover. A comparison study of the temperature difference between orchards under different irrigation schemes is presented…

The sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different harvesting techniques: An integrated methodology

2019

Abstract The globalization of the olive oil market has caused greater competitiveness in terms of olive oil quality and production costs and the main countries interested in olive growing, have introduced efficient planting design and horticultural techniques in order to meet these requirements. In this paper the sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different olive fruit-harvesting methods has been assessed on the basis of the data gathered by the Geographic Information System and processed using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making Analysis. In particular, three different agronomic scenarios have been analyzed and a specific cultivar has been considered in order to ensure th…

Cactus pear (O. ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) fruit production: Ecophysiology, orchard and fresh-cut fruit management

2015

Cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L. Mill.) is cultivated in wide range of environments with the consequence of large differences in crop potential, orchard systems and management. These differences may be related to temperature and rainfall range (water availability) but also to the day/night length and, of course, to soil characteristics. This leads to considerable variability in the field and in fruit quality. Crop value much depends in crop variability in terms of fruit size, which is the major factor for fruit price in Europe. The increase of crop value very much depends on regular cultural practices such as irrigation and fruit thinning, but it is also dependent on plant crop yield an…

The impact of winter flooding with saline water on foliar carbon uptake and the volatile fraction of leaves and fruits of lemon (Citrus limon) trees

2012

We investigated the consequences of recurrent winter flooding with saline water on a lemon (Citrus × limon (L.) Burm.f.) orchard, focussing on photosynthesis limitations and emission of secondary metabolites (isoprenoids) from leaves and fruits. Measurements were carried out immediately after flooding (December), at the end of winter (April) and after a dry summer in which plants were irrigated with optimal quality water (September). Photosynthesis was negatively affected by flooding. The effect was still visible at the end of winter, whereas the photosynthetic rate was fully recovered after summer, indicating an unexpected resilience capacity of flooded plants. Photosynthesis inhibition by…

Adapting FAO-56 Spreadsheet Program to estimate olive orchard transpiration fluxes under soil water stress condition

2012

Choice between alternative investments in agriculture: The role of organic farming to avoid the abandonment of rural areas

2015

Abstract Sicily has a long tradition in citrus fruit cultivation that, with vineyard and olive tree, represents the main Mediterranean tree crops. Since many Sicilian farmers in recent years have decided to abandon conventional lemon orchards, in this paper we have evaluated the financial sustainability of organic lemon production by comparing it with the conventional one. Financial analysis has been carried out in a case study on the northwestern coast of Sicily, considering a 50-year economic life of an orchard. The results, per hectare of area, showed a clear advantage of organic lemon orchard. This was due to fewer labor requirements and to greater market appreciation for organic produc…

SSR-based DNA fingerprints reveal the genetic diversity of Sicilian olive (Olea europaeaL.) germplasm

2005

Twelve published simple sequence repeat (SSR; microsatellite) markers, belonging to the ssrOeUA-DCA, GAPU and UDO series, were tested in a panel of 46 accessions of olive germplasm belonging to 30 unique cultivars collected in seven Provinces of Sicily. Four well-known reference olive cultivars were also added. The analysis was carried out on an automatic capillary sequencer using fluorescent dyes, and fragment sizes were determined using internal standards. The results allowed us to rank the SSRs assayed according to their information content and reproducibility. Up to 115 alleles were identified (119, if those unique to sport mutations were included), the frequency of which allowed geneti…

Investigation of European shot-hole borer, Xyleborus dispar (Coleoptera, Scolytidae), in apple orchards of Latvia

2015

European shot-hole borer is known to occur on a wide range of deciduous trees and frequently found on fruit trees in most of the Holarctic. During the last years increased activity of this beetle<em> </em>contributed necessity for investigation of it in apple orchards of Latvia. Because of the latent behavior it is difficult to control distribution of <em>Xyleborus dispar</em>. Often insecticides are not effective, especially if not used in an appropriate time and methods of integrated or biological plant protection are needed. In the current study, results of two year monitoring of <em>X. dispar</em> flying activity and effectiveness of two types of stic…

Improvement of FAO-56 Model to Estimate Transpiration Fluxes of Drought Tolerant Crops under Soil Water Deficit: Application for Olive Groves

2014

[EN] Agro-hydrological models are considered an economic and simple tool for quantifying crop water requirements. In the last two decades, agro-hydrological physically based models have been developed to simulate mass and energy exchange processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Although very reliable, because of the high number of required variables, simplified models have been proposed to quantify crop water consumes. The main aim of this paper is to propose an amendment of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations FAO-56 spreadsheet program to introduce a more realistic shape of the stress function, valid for mature olive orchards (Olea europaea L.). The mod…

Combined use of eddy covariance and sap flow techniques for partition of ET fluxes and water stress assessment in an irrigated olive orchard

2013

Correct estimation of crop actual transpiration plays a key-role in precision irrigation scheduling, since crop growth and yield are associated to the water passing through the crop. Objective of the work was to assess how the combined use of micro-meteorological techniques (eddy covariance, EC) and physiological measurements (sap flow, SF) allows a better comprehension of the processes involving in the Soil–Plant–Atmosphere continuum. To this aim, an experimental dataset of actual evapotranspiration, plant transpiration, and soil water content measurements was collected in an olive orchard during the midseason phenological period of 2009 and 2010. It was demonstrated that the joint use of …