FOCUS ON FRUIT SARAH CALCUTT
INNOVATION AND PARTNERSHIP Hutchinsons’ Helios orchard walk.
The storm clouds may have threatened the orchards, before they are visible to the human eye. Helios orchard walk last month, but it was Scab and mildew are the starting point, with the SARAH CALCUTT a faultless demonstration of what good aim of producing an early warning system, aiding Executive Chair, partnerships and a forward vision can really spray programme development. Also as part of this National Fruit Show deliver. project, a novel approach to spore trapping using The Helios orchards seek to explore the potential match sticks (don’t ask) is being evaluated, aimed at of different orchard structures to utilise more enhancing the accuracy of disease modelling. light to increase yields and quality (Helios being the god of the sun in Greek Finally, Rob and Nigel described IRIS (Improving Resilience In Scab control), mythology). In Kent the orchard is hosted by Tom Hulme at Hoaden Court. its objective being to make scab fungicide programmes more resilient. UK It is a beautiful set of trial plots, well maintained by the Hoaden Court team, dessert varieties are annually challenged by scab issues, with our climate with specialist pruning and monitoring being undertaken by Hutchinsons getting warmer and wetter, fungicide options reducing and the new product agronomists Bob Little and Ivan Valesco. pipeline limited. There are six planting configurations and rootstocks under trial, the results Product approvals restrict the number and frequency of applications from which will become more interesting as they mature. Of more immediate and several fungicides are within the same FRAC groups, further restricting interest were presentations about the technology being developed with the applications. Protection is often needed every seven to 10 days (definitely in same objective – to increase yield and quality. the season we are enduring) and there is the potential to run out of permitted At the first technical stop Nick Strelczuk spoke about Terramap. The system applications before the season is over. can map 21 soil parameters at a resolution of 800 points per hectare. The sensor Bio-stimulants improve the ability of trees to withstand disease and fill the is mounted on a lightweight vehicle such as a quad bike and measures the ‘gaps’ in programmes by triggering systemic acquired resistance (SAR). This can natural radioactive decay of four isotopes, from which the soil map is derived. take time to become activated but reduced susceptibility (though not immunity) Importantly, it’s not just mineral content that is measured and mapped but also is possible. organic carbon content, this organic matter being crucial for soil health. The evaluation plots have been replicated in a commercial orchard; robust At the next stop Rob Saunders outlined the POD project (Precision Orchard protection applied from bud burst, bio-stimulants then deployed and support Dosing – an Innovate UK project managed by Rob, and partnered with from protectant fungicides only deployed when RIMpro predicts infection NIAB EMR, Outfield, The Acclaimed Software Company, Plumford Farm and pressure above a certain threshold. It’s going to be really interesting to see the Worldwide Fruit). We all know that even the best orchards can be variable; data from this season, which has got to be the most pressurised test they could the same rate of thinner or growth regulator applied to the whole orchard will have imagined. over-dose some trees and under-dose others. Orchard performance could be improved, and spray use optimised, by treating trees as individuals. How do you treat a tree as an individual? Initially, a LIDAR scan of the trees, Grubbing, timber & groundwork services then a UAV scan of the orchard to map blossom intensity and AI to interpret • orchard grubbing • land clearance the images, feeding into an algorithm to create a prescription map which is • windbreak removal • excavations delivered through a variable rate sprayer using GPS. • timber extraction • cultivations Next Nigel Kitney explained his RED-APPLE project – remote sensing and • fallen tree removal • pond dredging decision support for apple tree precision management and global traceability • ground contouring • reservoir construction (delivered using a grant from the Newton Agri-tech joint fund). This project W.H.Skinner & Sons centres around using hyperspectral cameras to spot pest disease remotely in 01622 744640 - 07711 264775
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WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET | SEPTEMBER 2021
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