The Precision Apple Cropload Management project is nearing completion, and project leader and Cornell University horticulture professor Terence Robinson is ready to share some results.
Robinson spoke Feb. 17, during the International Fruit Tree Association’s 68th annual conference in Rochester, New York. He said the five-year, nationwide project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has one more growing season left. There’s more to figure out, but new technologies are helping researchers refine precision crop load management techniques.
A few years ago, the researchers started studying how to count buds using digital computer vision, an emerging technology. A special camera mounted to a vehicle can count buds quickly and with precision. They also figured out how to digitally measure trunk diameter and calculate crop load based on trunk cross-sectional area, he said.
Robinson’s previous recommendation was to count buds manually, but few growers want to do that because it’s tedious. Digital counts of bud number at the dormant pruning stage still aren’t perfect, but they don’t need to be. They just “need to be in the ballpark,” he said. Greater precision can come later in the thinning process.
Project researchers have figured out how to make digital measurements, but they haven’t figured out an effective way to communicate pruning instructions based on those measurements to the workers actually doing the pruning. Perhaps a supervisor can tell the workers how many buds to remove per tree via earbuds or headphones, or maybe workers can read the number off a handheld tablet. That piece of the puzzle still needs to be found, Robinson said.
The IFTA conference will continue with a bus tour Feb. 18, followed by another day of presentations Feb. 19.
— by Matt Milkovich
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