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Spatial variation in yield and quality in a small apple orchard

Precision Agriculture volume 11, pages 538–556 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

We describe the yield and quality of apples from a 0.8 ha apple orchard located in northern Greece over two growing seasons and consider the potential for site-specific management. The orchard has two apple cultivars: Red Chief (main cultivar) and Fuji (pollinator). Yield was measured by weighing all fruit harvested from groups of five adjacent trees and the position of the central tree was recorded by GPS. Apple quality at harvest was evaluated from samples of the two cultivars in both years for which fruit mass, flesh firmness, soluble solids content, juice pH and acidity of the juice were determined. The variation in tree flowering was also measured in the spring of the second season using a stereological sampling procedure. The results showed considerable variability in the number of tree flowers, yield and quality across the orchard for both cultivars. The number of flowers was strongly correlated with the final yield. These data could potentially be used to plan precise thinning and for early prediction of yield; the latter is important for marketing the fruit. Several quality characteristics, including fruit juice soluble solids content and acid content were negatively correlated with yield. The general patterns of spatial variation in several variables suggested that changes in topography and aspect had important effects on apple yield and quality.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Rappos family and especially to Vagellis Rappos in Ptolemaida, Greece, for allowing us to apply our methods to their orchard and for their cooperation and assistance with field trials. We thank the editor and reviewers for valuable comments. This project was funded by the Greek Ministry of Education through the PYTHAGORAS II programme. DW acknowledges support from the SJVF (Danish Research Council) project “Applications of Stereology for Agricultural Systems”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, N. Ionia, Magnesia, Greece

    K. D. Aggelopoulou, S. Fountas, T. A. Gemtos, G. D. Nanos & S. Blackmore

  2. Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2630, Tåstrup, Denmark

    D. Wulfsohn

Authors
  1. K. D. Aggelopoulou
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  2. D. Wulfsohn
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  3. S. Fountas
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  4. T. A. Gemtos
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  5. G. D. Nanos
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  6. S. Blackmore
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Correspondence to K. D. Aggelopoulou.

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Aggelopoulou, K.D., Wulfsohn, D., Fountas, S. et al. Spatial variation in yield and quality in a small apple orchard. Precision Agric 11, 538–556 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-009-9146-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-009-9146-9

Keywords

  • Flowering
  • Fruit quality
  • Intrinsic random function-k (IRF-k) kriging
  • Malus domestica
  • Precision horticulture
  • Spatial variation
  • Stereology

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