Monitoring Strategies for Precise Production of High Quality Fruit and Yield in Apple in Emilia-Romagna

Research has shown that pomefruit orchard production can be forecast. Basic information about orchard characteristics as tree density, fruit load and fruit size can translate into useful information on orchard production. In most cases the complete flow of this information is only available after harvest. Precision horticulture integrates this information in order to evaluate the management performed by the grower, and to assess whether it is in line to achieve the desired targets or not. The Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Bologna and HK-Horticultural Knowledge (HK, 2011) after several years of conducting experiences of precise fruit growing in commercial orchards cooperate to bring to fruition this novel approach. Precise measurement of fruit growth is justified on the concept that the fruit can be considered as the most relevant indicator of how well is the process progressing. A four year experiment will be presented. Fruit maximum diameter was recorded every other week during the cell expansion phase of growth. The data were processed and a diagnosis was released in real time to the grower, assessing the progress of the crop, and serving as a verification that the applied management techniques are yielding the expected production result. The real time forecast has been used to evaluate a comparison between predicted and the real breakdown of the total yield into size categories, which allows to release also a very accurate estimate of orchard yield for the packing house.