REFLECTIVE GROUND COVERS INCREASE YIELDS OF FRUIT TREES

Financial returns to fruit growers in the United States are determined primarily by yield, fruit size, and skin color.
Products which can enhance one or more of these parameters have significant potential to improve orchard profitability.
The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission has conducted 50+ replicated field trials since 2005 to evaluate horticultural effects of deploying reflective ground covers in commercial apple (Malus × domestica), pear (Pyrus communis), sweet cherry (Prunus avium), peach (Prunus persica), and nectarine (P. persica var. nectarine) orchards in Washington State, USA. Treatments have included four reusable woven white polyethylene products manufactured by Extenday^®USA, Inc. and a silver Mylar material, Brite-N’up.
The Extenday^® products DayBright^® and DayWhite^® have consistently improved yields and value of fruit across all crops by promoting fruit set and/or size, while often significantly improving development of red color.
In the second and third years of long term apple studies, fruit yields across all trials were increased by approximately 25% in plots treated with DayBright^® from bloom until harvest.
Brite-N’up consistently improved red color in ‘Gala’ apples when deployed 3-4 weeks prior to harvest in three years of trials, but not as much as DayWhite^® deployed at the same time.
In addition to enhancing production of high value fruit, these reflective materials show promise as harvest management tools, since they occasionally advance fruit maturity and frequently reduce the number of harvests required for multiple-pick cultivars.

X International Symposium on Integrating Canopy, Rootstock and Environmental Physiology in Orchard Systems

T. Schmidt, I. Hanrahan, F. Castillo, J. McFerson

apple, peach, reflective ground covers, yield, fruit quality

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1058.37