Crop/Growth management
Benefit by mulching along the tree line
After all the weed strips have been sprayed, cultivated or controlled (at least for now), think about adding mulch or organic matter to the tree line.
Review your cherry season
It's time to review what happened last season in order to implement management practices that will improve crop load, fruit quality and pack-out this season.
Adapt to changing cherry seasons
Flowering cherry blossom in Japan heralds the beginning of spring and celebrations that go back centuries. Flowering cherries in Kyoto normally blossom during April; this season the bloom peaked prior to the end of March—the earliest for 1200 years.
Cherry trees in autumn
Autumn brings change to cherry trees—but what happens?In simple terms, nutrients left in the leaves are being downloaded into the roots and stored there until spring.
Plan cherry post-harvest activities
Once harvest is complete—but before you put your feet up—there is some planning to do. It doesn’t matter if you use a phone, tablet, computer or a piece of paper, you should create a list of activities that need to be completed.
New book from USA about growing cherries
As the cherry season enters the last few weeks of harvest in Australia, growers may soon have a little free time to do some valuable reading about cherries. Although the recently released book, Sweet Cherries is based on cherry growing in the USA, two of the authors, Lynn Long and…
Learning from the NW cherry season in the US
John Baker of Produce Marketing has kindly made available the 2020 season review by NorthWest Cherries.Much information about season timing, production volumes (including data from California) and consumer preferences are shown.Timing of the pandemic in relation to the cherry season in our two countries is different because the northern hemisphere…
Effect of temperature at bloom on fruit set in Williams’ pears (part 2)
It is well documented that Bartlett pears in California set fruit via vegetative parthenocarpy —that is without pollination or fertilisation. University of California researchers described this phenomenon in 1954.
Cherry harvest and the looming labour issues
Australian cherry growers remain concerned about the availability and willingness of harvest labour—not just for their crop, but for all crops that need fruit pickers. Cherries in particular have a short shelf life and harvesting cannot be delayed more than a day at the most during the warm to hot…
Managing crop load in deciduous trees (part 5)
Benefits of chemical thinning: To achieve good thinning and fruit quality, all chemical thinners need to be applied at the appropriate physiological stage and under the climatic conditions best suited to each chemical. Choice of thinning chemical is important, as some cultivars do not respond well to some chemicals.
Effect of temperature at bloom on fruit set in Williams’ pears
In the early 20th century, researchers in California, Germany, South Africa and Australia reported that Williams’ fruit had no seeds. The full name of the variety, Williams’ Bon Chretien, is also referred to as WBC or Bartlett. The term parthenocarpy was introduced, and is defined as the development of fruit…
Managing crop load in deciduous trees (part 4)
Understanding the mechanisms involved in flowering and fruit set can help orchardists to manage crop loads, resulting in improved yields, fruit quality and returns.
