Innovation in tree fruit production system sustainability through horticultural engineering: case studies

Genetic engineering of plants has offered fascinating possibilities over the past three decades, often overshadowing what might be called horticultural engineering solutions to a great many production challenges.
This paper reviews the development of high impact, innovative advances in sustainable tree fruit production through the integration of plant morphological foundations, physiological research, improved cultivar and rootstock genotypes, biosystems engineering, and readily adopted orchard management practices: essentially, horticultural engineering.
Harnessing certain evolutionary vegetative traits, such as meristem phyllotaxy, vertical shoot orientation, and apical dominance, as well as horticultural manipulations such as diffusion of vigor through multiple leaders, has guided our research approach to planar canopy development for fruit trees.
The case studies focus on a) 20+ years of developing and refining variations of a planar canopy architecture (Upright Fruiting Offshoots, UFO) for sweet cherry production that deconstructed a genetically evolved forest tree into its fundamental fruiting units, then reassembled these units into precisely optimized light- and labor-efficient orchard structures, and b) 10 years of applying these same principles to improving peach production systems, with significant comparisons and contrasts (such as spur- vs. shoot-bearing habits) critical for ultimate success.
Not only do these advances positively impact yield potential, fruit quality, labor efficiency, worker safety, reduced pesticide use, and facilitation of protected environments, but rapidly advancing digital imaging/sensing, data acquisition and interpretation, and robotic technologies also are more readily facilitated by horticulturally-engineered precision canopy architectures.
While genetic engineering continues to offer unique and powerful tools for manipulating a single or a few genes, horticultural engineering solutions should not be overlooked for addressing the challenging complexities of perennial cropping systems like tree fruit production more quickly, with more rapid potential adoption, wide acceptance by the public, and a high probability for significant and widespread impacts.

XXXI International Horticultural Congress (IHC2022): International Symposium on Innovative Perennial Crops Management

G.A. Lang

Prunus avium, Prunus persica, orchard systems, yield, labor efficiency, plant morphology

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1366.22