Research Update
Plantings of Golden Delicious, left, and Pink Lady, right in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy have demonstrated big increases in yield and lower labour costs.
‘Fruiting walls’ show promise
Italian researcher explains how new techniques formanaging apple tree vigour provide numerous benefits.
By Judie Steeves H
undreds of hours of labour can be saved at harvest, production can more than double over several decades and better quality and sized fruit result from creation of fruiting walls, according to Alberto Dorigoni. A researcher in the South Tyrol fruit-growing region of northern Italy, he has been working on new designs for apple orchards that will be more economical and more ecologically- friendly, as well as resulting in better yields and being less labour-intensive. Dorigoni spoke to growers in March at the B.C. Tree Fruit Horticultural Symposium in Kelowna.
In many ways, the South Tyrol is similar to the Okanagan, with small farms and a strong co-op movement, but in the past high production costs were a problem.
As well, he said, there were difficult relations between agriculture producers and the community with
14 British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2015
regard to chemical use, but that has led now to a better use of the land, and adoption of more
environmentally-friendly practices in orchards.
Dorigoni runs both a family orchard and two for an experimental station where he does research into orchard designs that are more sustainable. Using what he calls a ‘fruiting wall,’yields have grown from 30 to 70 tonnes of apples harvested per hectare in the past 30 years. “A fruit wall has only fruit spurs and no secondary structure,”he explains. That way vigour can be managed, light can reach the fruit, and excess vigour can be diverted into the primary structure. Instead of dormant pruning, summer pruning is used to get control of the orchard.
“There’s a de-constructing effect of early June pruning,”he comments. Sap is diverted to the fruit and buds. With early summer pruning re-growth is also reduced, he adds. In terms of cost, during the first three years using these different training systems, there are hours of hand labour required on fertile soils, so you have to be a bit of a nurseryman, he notes.
However, when the trees are adult, there’s much less effort required, and the fruit wall simplifies harvest, saving hundreds of hours and resulting in fruit that’s a better size and quality and with more consistency.
Mechanical pruning is also easier to adopt with fruiting walls, which also need less effort at weed control and can result in a reduction in the use of
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