Introduction to the canopy & cropload experiments

Introduction:  Peach cv. August Flame on Vertical Leader tree training

I'm standing in the peach crop load canopy experiment. This is a peach August Flame, a mid to late season variety. We have them in a one metre tree spacing, four and a half made a row spacing. These are two year old trees.

Next season, we will commence the crop load experiments where we will vary the amount of fruit per tree to look at the interaction with light interception and crop load on fruit quality and fruit sweetness, brixs. We've trained these trees as a Central Leader system, North-South row orientation, two leader per tree.

Introduction: Peach cv. August Flame on Tatura trellis tree training

We're in the sister orchard experiment to the one we just described where this is again, peach August flame, two year old trees. This time trained to Tatura trellis. Again, one metre tree spacing, four and a half metre row spacing, and it'll be a crop load by canopy arrangement - experiment, where next year in year three we will put different amounts of fruit per tree to look at the interactions of light interception, crop load on fruit sweetness and yield. Like the Central Leader experiment next door,  these trees are also trained with two leaders per tree. So next door we had central leader trees in a north south row with two leaders per tree. Here we have Tatura trellis in a North-South row, with two leaders a tree. where these leaders are facing one West and one East.

Introduction: Nectarine cv. Autumn Bright on Tatura Trellis tree training

This field experiment is nectarine Autumn Bright, two year old trees, trained as Tatura trellis. We have one metre tree spacing, four and a half metre row spacing. So in the third year, next year, these trees will have different crop loads. And again we'll look at light interception, crop load on fruit yield and fruit quality with particular emphasis on fruit sweetness, brixs. These trees are trained as two leaders per tree in the Tatura trellis formation. One leader to the west and one leader to the east.

Introduction: Nectarine cv. Autumn Bright on Vertical Leader tree training

In this field experiment we have the nectarine Autumn Bright, two year old trees at the moment. Next season, year three, we'll set up a crop load experiment where we look at the light interception of these trees, and the interaction between light interception crop load and fruit quality, in particular for its sweetness. Again, we have trees at one metre spacing, and four and a half metre row spacing. Two leaders per tree in a central leader arrangement. We've just completed summer pruning on these, all these experiments to get the desired tree training and tree shape ready for next year.

Introduction: Apricot cv. Golden May on Vase and Tatura trellis tree training

In this field experiment we have apricot Golden May and we've got two training systems that we're going to investigate. One is the Tatura trellis, and one will be the open vase, next door. So, here we have one year old trees. So in year three we'll set different crop loads on these trees, and we will look at the interaction between light interception and fruit number per tree on yield and fruit quality, in particular, fruit sweetness. We've got these trees spaced at one metre on Tatura trellis and one meter on vase. We have two leader trees here, one facing west, one facing east. On this experiment, we'll have four leader open vase trees. We'll have two leaders per side.

Introduction: Plum cv. Angeleno May on Vase and Tatura trellis tree training

In this field experiment we have one year old plum trees. We have been trained as Tatura trellis or open Vase. Again we're looking at crop load and canopy design and radiation interception relationships on fruit quality and yield, in particular interest on fruit sweetness, brixs. So here we have north-south oriented trees - row direction. One metre spacing, four and a half meter row spacing, two leaders per tree, on Tatura trellis.  Next door, we have the same variety, Angelino plum, one metre tree spacing. These would be open vase, 4 leader trees. Again, one year old trees. So in year three, we'll set these trees up with different crop loads and look at the interaction with light interception, yield and fruit quality.