UK technology first

The use of new technology in 300 hectares of orchards devoted to top fruit has enabled one Kent based grower, Adrian Scripps Ltd, to move to an individual tree care approach this season.

Replacing a more traditional ‘blanket orchard approach’ and new to the UK, the technology developed by Aurea Imaging, a crop intelligence company is being used for the first time by Scripps. It helps the business with plant protection, nutrition, blossom thinning and individual tree root pruning by gathering information by drone and a tractor mounted system, which then allows for individual interventions to be made on each tree throughout the growing season.

example apply blossom thinning products or even root prune individual trees when we go back through the orchards. It is all GPS linked and is accurate to within a few centimetres.”

“Once picked our fruit is taken to the farm and each bin is scanned, using technology from a company called Hectre, before it goes into cold storage. This live data on the size and colour of the crop can be seen by the senior team on a phone app and we can decide if the fruit is being picked to the right criteria.”

James Simpson comments: “The Aurea Imaging is both drone and tractor based. On the tractor, the Tractor Mounted System drives through the orchard scanning both sides of the tree row and it looks at things like tree vigour and blossom density. Currently in development is the ability to count apples and size the fruit. With the information recorded we can for

“This insight into the size and profile of the crop allows us to market the fruit more effectively as we know what we have in each store and bin.”

“For our business, using this technology is about maximising orchard outputs so that we achieve a more even crop across the whole orchard and with the data provided it makes it simpler and easier to manage.”

Adrian Scripps Ltd is a family-owned business established in 1960 by Adrian Scripps with five farms in Kent. It has a centralised storage and packing facility at Moat Farm near Tonbridge and works with a number of growers to provide a varied portfolio of fruit to UK retailers.

It has the exclusive UK licence for Kanzi® and Red Prince® and a joint exclusive licence for the UK’s first Pink Lady® orchards, which will be extended to 50ha by 2025.

The business has 25 clones in trials focussed on delivering superior characteristics and has the first UK trials of Zingy®, Fengapi®, Sunspark®, Dazzle®, Snapdragon® and Rubyfrost®. It also grows Wildfire® Gala which is the earliest clone on the UK market and available in August.

The business produces 14m kgs of its own top fruit annually and it packs and markets an additional 6m kgs for other growers.

It was the initiator of the six pack Trayless Flow-wrap concept and Natural Branding®, an alternative to PLU stickers. Adrian Scripps is also the UK’s largest top fruit exporter of around 2m kgs per annum.