Abstract
Windbreaks, trees, structures, and shade nets are used in South Africa to protect citrus orchards from wind scar damage to avoid major losses in export quality. Severe southeasterly winds in the Western Cape during spring and summer are the main causes of significant external peel damage. In this study, wind scar damage of ‘Tango’ mandarin (Citrus reticulata) fruit was quantified at different distances from established Casuarina cunninghamiana (Beefwood) and Populus simonii (Chinese Poplar) windbreaks around Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa. The yield efficiency was not significantly affected by distance from the windbreak in either of the trials. Fruit at 2 H and 3 H had significantly lower ratios of total soluble solids to titratable acidity, but export standards for mandarins were still met. The wind speed was consistently higher at 16 H, compared with 3 H during summer. The highest packout (class 1 fruit) was observed near the windbreak (3 H) and decreased as the distance increased towards 10 H and 16 H. There were no significant differences for severe wind scar damage incidence between the distance treatments. Our results confirmed the impact of wind on external fruit quality and the limitation of tree-based windbreaks with an increase in distance, which partly supports the current movement towards full enclosure of orchards with shade nets.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Johan and Gideon Roos from Paul Roos Wine, Rust en Vrede, Somerset West, and Ian de Villiers at Babylonstoren, Simondium, for their support and permission for the field experiments. The FarmImpact project was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant no. FKZ 01LZ1711C) as part of the Client II. We thank the reviewers for their fruitful comments.
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H. Geldenhuys, E. Lötze, and M. Veste declare that they have no competing interests.
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Geldenhuys, H., Lötze, E. & Veste, M. Fruit Quality and Yield of Mandarin (Citrus reticulata) in Orchards with Different Windbreaks in the Western Cape, South Africa. Erwerbs-Obstbau 65, 959–969 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10341-022-00725-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10341-022-00725-3