In recent years there has been a growing interest in the application of geographic information systems (GIS) for the development of spatial decision support systems (SDSS). The current paper presents the development of a GISbased SDSS for precision management of tree crops. The SDSS is being developed within the framework of the '3D-Mosaic' project which aims at optimizing water consumption in ...

Observations made in California over a period of years have disclosed an interesting problenn regarding unproductive cherry trees. An occasional tree, or portion of a tree, has been found that produces practically no fruit, yet branches of the same tree, or other trees of the same variety standing beside it, have been consistently prolific. The behavior of these unproductive trees suggests the ...

Despite problems of low fruit set, small fruit size and alternate bearing, the Hass cultivar dominates commercial avocado production worldwide. To increase yield and fruit size, gibberellic acid (GA3) (25 mg L−1) was applied at different stages of ‘Hass’ avocado tree phenology: (i) mid–late April (flower abscission), end of June–beginning of July (fruit abscission and beginning of the exponenti...

during the fragmented phases of the tree-improvement delivery system are reviewed. The impacts of intentional and unintentional directional selection during phenotypic selection, seed production (with its associated reproductive-phenology asynchrony, fecundity differential and varying propensity to inbreeding), seed processing and storage, and seedling production are evaluated. In general, gene...

A statistical interpolation method is proposed which allows calculation of the leaf area index LAI(t), the downward cumulative leaf area index L(z, t) and the canopy leaf area density u(z, t) as the functions of height and time for any day of the growth period. The method is based on three functions: probability density of stem height, interrelationship between stem height and stem foliage area...

Birds active in apple orchards in south-eastern Australia can contribute positively (e.g., control crop pests) or negatively (e.g., crop damage) to crop yields. Our study is the first to identify net outcomes of these activities, using six apple orchards, varying in management intensity, in south-eastern Australia as a study system. We also conducted a predation experiment using real and artifi...

Ground cover vegetation is often added or allowed to generate to promote conservation biological control, especially in perennial crops. Nevertheless, there is inconsistent evidence of its effectiveness, with studies reporting positive, nil or negative effects on pest control. This might arise from differences between studies at the local scale (e.g. orchard management and land use history), th...

Insect pollination underpins apple production but the extent to which different pollinator guilds supply this service, particularly across different apple varieties, is unknown. Such information is essential if appropriate orchard management practices are to be targeted and proportional to the potential benefits pollinator species may provide. Here we use a novel combination of pollinator effec...

Phosphorus (P) fertilizer has been applied profligately across the globe, being particularly overused in China in the past 30 years in order to pursue high yields (Cordell et al., 2009; Li et al., 2014). This has greatly increased the P content of soil in various intensive agricultural systems (including cereals, vegetables, and fruit orchard), many of which now contain sufficient P to potentia...