Growing Fruit to Market Requirements NETTING CITRUS TO MEET MARKET - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Growing Fruit to Market Requirements NETTING CITRUS TO MEET MARKET REQUIREMENTS

What was the market telling us?  Class 2 fruit is hard to sell at a profitable value  There is no juice value for navels and mandarins  There are good markets and value for large blemish free fruit  Seedless mandarins are more desired than seedy ones in most markets

We were growing too much unprofitable and wasted fruit  We had class 1 pack outs for Navels as low as 15%, averaging 25- 30% over the last 10 yrs. This is too low! Wind blemish was the number one cause of this for us.  Our Afourers had a few seeds due to cross pollination. With an increasing volume of fruit to come on the market we wanted to keep ours seedless to attract a premium relative to seedy fruit.

Ways to fix the these issues Prune, thin and reduce wind speed. We were already doing the first two quite well. So  we needed to reduce wind speed. Windbreaks do this, we had planned for them but turned them off in the drought.  They also require a lot of water , rob yield and occupy land. After a lot of research we opted for a flat top netting structure. 6m high, steel poles,  20mm white quad weave top and 8mm black quad weave sides for extra wind break effect. Exclude bees to stop cross pollination. We added a curtain around the Afourer  patch. Added benefits of improved water use efficiency, hail protection and to a lesser  extent sun protection

Results so far  Only one full season of flowering to ripening completed under netted conditions.  Structure performed largely as expected, but there were a couple of surprises  You get results as soon as the structure is erected. Don’t have to wait for it to grow (well, only a couple of months not 5-8yrs)

Navelina Pack out results Effect on bottom line NAVELINA  Value increase of $122/T UN N 90 79 80  At 58T/Ha = $7,076/Ha 70 58 60 50 40 30 24 18 20 14 7 10 0 C1 C2 J

Washington Navel Pack out results Effect on bottom line WASHINGTON  Value increase of $234/T UN N 66 70 60  At 57T/Ha = $13,395/Ha 48 50 37 40 30 24 20 15 10 10 0 C1 C2 J

Cara Cara Pack out results Effect on bottom line CARA CARA  Value increase of $424/T UN N 80 74 70  At 80T/Ha = $33,920/Ha 60 50 44 41 40 30 21 20 15 10 5 0 C1 C2 J

Late Navels Pack out results Effect on bottom line LATE NAVELS  Value increase of $188/T 80 UN N 67 70 60  At 50T/Ha = $9,400/Ha 46 50 37 40 30 21 17 20 12 10 0 C1 C2 J

Afourer Pack out results Effect on bottom line AFOURER  Value increase of $240/T 80 UN N 73 70 70 60  At 60T/Ha = $14,400/Ha 50 40  Only a slight increase in value due 30 20 to pack out. Extra value was 16 20 14 mainly for a seedless premium. This 7 10 premium was less than I had 0 hoped for, but it may increase as C1 C2 J time goes?

Imperials Pack out results Pack out results IMPERIAL  Value decrease of $27/T 80 UN N 71 67 70 60  At 45 T/ha = -$1,215/Ha 50 40  Negligible difference in pack out. 30 22 Seem to be able to get more 16 20 13 11 marked Imps into C1 possibly due 10 to their already pebbly 0 appearance. C1 C2 J

Challenges  Delayed external ripening, 1-2 weeks later than outside the net. I feel this is mainly due to solar radiation interception by the nets.  Pruning to open canopy, paying closer attention to N and K levels.  Manipulate irrigation to help bring on colour development.  Only one seasons observations.  Reduced picking hours under wet or heavy dew conditions. Trees are slow to dry. We start 1-3hrs later than outside the net. However, it works the opposite in light dew mornings, nets stay a little warmer over night and fruit comes up to temp quicker. But over all we start later in the day under the nets

Challenges  Increased vegetative growth . This requires a little extra time at pruning and hedging to counter, plus we have to feather once in the Feb/March period. We do the same regime outside but it takes a little longer under the nets. We keep an eye on our nutrient levels and try to keep them just optimal (possibly money saving).  Pest insects can increase . We haven’t experienced this, but we have increased the money we spend monitoring under the nets as I am wary this can be an issue. We are trying to be proactive in our IPM. My feeling is that beneficial insects should also be aided by the conditions under the net as well. Like I said, only 1 full completed season with two half seasons.

Summary  For our situation we have increased our income by producing more saleable fruit at higher values across most varieties.  Net provides insurance against extreme weather events, hail, wind, and heat. Which increases the impact of pruning and thinning under the netting if conducted.  Weather data shows reduced wind speed of around 50%. There are plenty of other weather parameters also altered by the netting but I’ll leave that to the SAMDB NRM guys to explain in the poster session.  We have a reduced requirement to thin under the netting, only need to thin for crop load, not marked fruit.

Summary  There are some management challenges and associated costs. We found them to be easily dealt with and not that expensive (so far).  Imperials were not worth netting in our situation  Need to do you numbers in your situation:  How easy is it going to be to build a structure over your orchard?, this will affect the cost of the structure ($40K-$60K/Ha)  What results are you targeting?  What varieties are you netting?  Will the investment pay in your situation?

Managing citrus under permanent Netting  Benefits Afourer  Higher priced cartons for seedless product  Decreased wind  Increased humidity  Decreased water use per hectare  Increased fruit size  Increased packouts  Less wind blemish

Challenges  Increased insect pressure  Colour development  Increased pruning

Premium for seedless  Ranges from $ 0.00 to $5.00 per class 1 carton depending on season and overall supply  $210 per tonne  60 tonnes per hec =$12000

Decreased water use  Outside netting about 7 megs to produce 65 tonnes  Inside on larger trees about 5.5 megs to produce 65 tonnes  In crop rainfall average 400 mm

Increased fruit size  Seems to be about 1 fruit count depending on rootstock  Could also be a correlation of less fruitlets setting

Increased packouts  Year 2016 moved from 75 % class 1 outside net on trellis system to 83%  Year 2016 traditional spacing. About the same packout but blocks with no netting had 20% of fruit removed at a cost of $3500 per hectare as well as the yield penalty of 5 to 10 tonnes. Overall Gross margin difference $7500 to $15000 per hectare depending on block.  Year 2015 decreased packouts under netting due to LBAM damage  Year 2014 increased from 60% to 85% class 1 best result in year 1.

Increased insect pressure  High humidity  Less wind  Outbreaks tend to develop 3 to 4 weeks earlier under net  Manage with good pest monitoring that has an increased timing of visits over the flowering to early fruit set period.  Timely spraying then follow up releases of beneficial bugs 3 weeks later such as lacewing lavea

Colour Development  Harder to get full colour on lower half of tree in traditional spacing where tree begins to shade out lower limbs.  Trialing white netting to reduce the percentage light filtering  No problems in trellised blocks as full light penetration to base of tree even under 21% shade  Try and keep tree below 4 metres high

Incresed pruning  More vigourous growth under netting  We prune twice a year by hand to maintain the canopy size after harvest and reduce water shoots in late summer to maintain light levels in centre of tree  Total pruning is 6 minute per tree per year ($2.50 per tree)  By increase pruning we have helped avoid biannual bearing and cropped more fruit closer to the ground.