HORT 413 Tree Fruit Production

Production and Efficiency

There are 2 aspects to orchard productivity &endash; total productivity and efficiency of production.

Obviously at a given site, for every acre of orchard, there is one acre of light incident on that acre of land.

First the orchard needs to be optimized to intercept a high proportion of that light. This relates to the total amount of photosynthesis and carbohydrate produced per acre.

Second, is the concept of Harvest Index (HI). Simply put, the harvest index is the weight of saleable product produced divided by the total above-ground weight of plants material produced. In a fruit orchard, this is:

Harvest index = weight of fruit / (weight of fruit + trees)

A common estimate of tree weight or size is trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA or TCA), which is easily calculated from trunk diameter or girth measurements. These measurements are quick, easy and non-destructive. Harvest index of fruit trees is usually expressed as kg fruit/cm2 TCSA.

Harvest index can be increased dramatically by the use of dwarfing rootstocks.