Ecophysiology of most temperate fruit tree crops, with strong emphasis on the vascular flows subtending their growth. Focusing on the determination of phloem, xylem and skin transpiration flows, the interaction between environmental parameters (T, RH, VPD, light availability) and fruit growth has been elucidated mechanistically, thanks to the measurement of micrometric variations in fruit size on hourly bases, the determination of stem, leaf and fruit water potentials, the measurement of leaf and canopy photosynthesis. The outcome of these studies provides the physiological bases for precision fruit growing strategies.
Fruit tree light relations, and the possibility to condition the orchard light microclimate have been studied in depth, with investigations on the amount of photodamage incurred by leaves, due to excessive light exposure, in C3 plants. Design, validation and parameterization of an algorithm (IPL index) capable of estimating leaf photosynthesis, using leaf T and fluorescence. This work has formed the foundation for a number of studies devoted to determine the amount of light that can be removed from the canopies (by shading or otherwise) without impairing fruit quality and yield.
Studies on canopy orientation and inclination have expanded the previous research interest to real orchards, e.g. the “Asymmetric Peach Orchard” at the Unibo Exp. Station, which have allowed to determine the amount (10%) of daily carbohydrates lost to repair the damaged PSII in the chloroplasts. This points to the possibility to design orchards that – by design (i.e., thanks to row orientation and inclination) – reduce the impact of excessive light levels and associated water requirements.
The knowledge accrued from the previous research lines has been funneled into designing and testing precision fruit growing solutions, in association with teams of robotic, automation, sensor engineers, active at an international level. The development of robot-friendly orchards, based on narrow, bi-dimensional canopy orchards has gone hand-in-hand with the development of an advanced robotic solution. Follow us on ECOPOM!
