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Irrigation Fruit fi rmness from Fruit fi rmness after 1 week Fruit soluble solids content after Incidence of ‘over soft’ treatment cold store,19 Sep.(kgf) at 20°C, 26 Sep.(kgf) 1 week at20°C, 26 Sep.(%) fruit(%) Full-irrigation 1.4 a 0.7 a 13.7 a 15 a Half-irrigation 1.9 b 1.0 b 14.3 a 7 b Quarter-irrigation 2.4 c 1.4 c 14.7 a 4 b Table 3. Effects of irrigation treatments at a Gisborne Hayward orchard on fruit fi rmness after 24 weeks of cold storage at 0° and fruit attributes after one week of shelf storage at 20°C (n=3 plots). Fruit were harvested on 4 April. For a harvest date, means in a column with the same letter are not signifi cantly different at P=0.05 (LSD). Fruit from this experiment had not fully ripened by the time of reporting. Even after 24 weeks of cold-storage at 0°C followed by 1 week at 20°C, fruit from almost all the treatments were not at eating fi rmness and none had reached their full soluble solids content (SSC) potential. The difference between harvest DM and SSC for fully ripe Hayward kiwifruit should be between 2.7 and 3.0 units (Burdon et al. 2004). In our trials, the differences were between 3.4 units (full-irrigation) and 4.0 units (quarterirrigation). We could assume that fruit would have ripened normally, if they had been treated with ethylene gas. However, it would be useful to confi rm that this would occur and that fruit from defi cit-irrigated vines do achieve improved eating qualities in any future research. ARE WATER DEFICITS FEASIBLE AS A TOOL FOR KIWIFRUIT GROWERS? Using severe water defi cits to increase kiwifruit dry matter would not be feasible for kiwifruit growers, at least with the current payment incentives for dry matter and size. The fruit payment benefi ts that would have been received this season for the increased DM would have more than been offset because: 1. Yield of Class 1 trays would have been reduced, as more of the (smaller) fruit would have been required to fi ll each tray 2. The fruit size payment profi le would have become less favourable, because of the smaller fruit size 3. The KiwiStart payment would have been reduced because of smaller fruit. The management of soil water defi cit was relatively crude in this study. We simply reduced the irrigation volumes mid season and waited for an outcome, relying on orchard management to schedule irrigation across the entire orchard. However, it is still possible that the controlled use of mild water defi cits, as part of a regulated water defi cit (RDI) strategy, could be feasible in some situations. On other crops such as apple (Ebel et al. 1995) and peach (Chalmers et al. 1981; Goldhammer et al. 2002), RDI strategies can successfully target water stress to periods when fruit are growing slowly and/or when active shoot growth is occurring. For example, water defi cits are often used in wine grapes to reduce unnecessary vegetative growth (Dry et al. 2001), which can increase fruit DM and reduce pruning costs. The potential for RDI strategies to benefi t Hayward vines may be small with the current low-vigour management systems. However, there may be a greater ability for such strategies to benefi t Hort16A, which usually displays a vigorous growth fl ush over the summer period between January and March. Hort16A trials are currently underway in Te Puke as part of a MAF Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF) co-funded project (Project TZ0736). NZ KIWIFRUIT JOURNAL JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008 11
12 SUMMARY We now have an indication of the likely responses of Hayward kiwifruit to water defi cits in the fi eld. The key fi ndings were that: 1. The defi cit irrigation treatment can increase fruit dry matter, in this case by up to 1.6 per cent-units. However, there is likely to be a corresponding decrease in fruit size, yield and orchard gate returns under current pricing mechanisms. Therefore, the deliberate use of defi cit irrigation to raise fruit dry matter would not be economically feasible for most Hayward kiwifruit orchards 2. Re-irrigating defi cit irrigation treatments in April did not signifi cantly alter fruit dry matter or weight. This result suggests that kiwifruit growers need not be concerned that sampling or harvesting soon after rainfall or irrigation will result in substantially reduced fruit dry matter 3. There was no evidence that postharvest storage performance of fruit from defi cit-irrigated vines was negatively affected; fruit remained fi rmer than those from full-irrigation treatments throughout storage. However, ripening of fruit from defi cit-irrigated treatments appeared to be signifi cantly delayed 4. Excessive irrigation should be discouraged, as it is likely to have longterm impacts on productivity if root health is compromised and could result Grower owned, profits retained by growers Focused on quality Consistently superior offshore results Historical record for consistently delivering high Green and Gold OGRs Strong rebate returns Practical on-orchard advice, technical support and know-how Increased packing and coolstore capacity State of the art, grading and NIR technology in unnecessary environmental costs (leaching of soluble nutrients, carbon emissions via power usage). Signifi cant root health issues have been observed in the Gisborne area that could be exacerbated with over-irrigation, particularly where there is poor drainage. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge and thank Cedric Whitters and Brian Alley from Kaiaponi farms for their assistance in conducting this research. REFERENCES Burdon J, McLeod D, Lallu N, Gamble J, Petley M, Gunson A 2004. Consumer evaluation of ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit of different at-harvest dry matter contents. Postharvest Biology and Technology 34: 245-255. Chalmers DJ, Mitchell PD, van Heek L 1981. Control of peach tree growth and productivity by regulated water supply, tree density, and summer pruning. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 106: 307-312. Currie M, Nicholls P 2006. Harvest timing - rainfall and early harvest can affect returns. New Zealand Kiwifruit Journal March/April: 11-16. Dry PR, Loveys BR, McCarthy MG 2001. Strategic irrigation management in Australian Friendly, proactive and focused management Focused on maximising grower returns Are you interested in knowing what you have been missing out on? If so, phone Matt Hill on 07-573 9309 or 0274-895 088 for more information. where OGR is everything vineyards. Journal International des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin 35: 129-139. Ebel RC, Proebsting EL, Evans RG 1995. Defi cit irrigation to control vegetative growth in apple and monitoring fruit growth to schedule irrigation. HortScience 30: 1229-1232. FAO 2002. Defi cit irrigation practices. Water reports 22. Rome, FAO, 102 p. Goldhammer D, Salinas M, Crisosto C, Day K, Soler M, Moriana A 2002. Effects Of Regulated Defi cit Irrigation And Partial Root Zone Drying On Late Harvest Peach Tree Performance. Acta Horticulturae 592: 343-350. Judd MJ, McAneney KJ, Wilson KS 1989. Infl uence of water stress on kiwifruit growth. Irrigation Science 10(4): 303-311. Max S, Horner I, Manning M 2007. ID it, then treat it! Minimising the impact of sick vines in kiwifruit orchards. New Zealand Kiwifruit Journal September/October: 51-54. McAneney K, Clough A, Green A, Harris B, Richardson AC 1989. Waterlogging and vine death at Kerikeri. New Zealand Kiwifruit Journal 56: 15. Miller SA, Smith GS, Boldingh HL, Johansson A 1998. Effects of water stress on fruit quality attributes of kiwifruit. Annals of Botany 81(1): 73-81. Patterson KJ 2004. Review of effects of high temperature stress, drought and anoxia on fruit development and management techniques to mitigate these stress factors. Report to ZESPRI Group Ltd on Project 627, Part A3. HortResearch Client Report number 13571. Richardson AC, Currie MB 2007. How do good kiwifruit develop? Part 1: Making a fruit. New Zealand Kiwifruit Journal January/ February: 17-20. Smith GS, Buwalda JG 1994. Kiwifruit. In: Schaffer B, Anderson PC ed. handbook of environmental physiology of fruit crops volume I: Temperate crops, CRC Press Inc. ■
Page 1 and 2: Thirsty vines Summer girdling Compo
Page 3 and 4: 4 contributors BILL SNELGAR Bill Sn
Page 5 and 6: 6 GRANT THORP Dr Grant Thorp is a H
Page 7 and 8: 8 Statistic December January Februa
Page 9: 10 Fruit dry matter (%) Soluble sol
Page 13 and 14: 14 Orchard Control Dry matter (%) C
Page 15 and 16: 16 Operators should also avoid cutt
Page 17 and 18: Technical Review Advertisement / Ad
Page 19 and 20: 20 Gearing up ‘Hort16A’ Returns
Page 21 and 22: 22 Table 2. Maturity attributes of
Page 23 and 24: 24 Active fungal biomass (ug/g) Fig
Page 25 and 26: 26 Hayward’s first priority: Shoo
Page 27 and 28: 28 regrowth developed larger leaves
Page 29 and 30: 30 Location Soil % C % N C:N Nelson
Page 31 and 32: 32 Mineral N (mg/kg) Figure 2. Chan
Page 33 and 34: 34 Resolving labour shortages - Is
Page 35 and 36: 36 Perceptions of the RSE Advantage
Page 37 and 38: 38 Organic O Marketing 2007 Tom McL
Page 39 and 40: 40 Customers are Impressed with tas
Page 41 and 42: 42 The Th flavour fl seesaw: balanc
Page 43 and 44: 44 aroma compounds. Dry Matter is a
Page 45 and 46: 46 Producing country On Orchard Pos
Page 47 and 48: 48 optimise their current managemen
Page 49 and 50: 50 Figure 2: Levels of actinidin en
Page 51 and 52: 52 NZKGI making its pledge in isola
Page 53 and 54: 54 Image provided by the NOAA/ESRL
Page 55 and 56: 56 Sea Surface temperature anomaly
Page 57 and 58: 58 The Taste ZESPRI TM programme wa
Page 59 and 60: 60 were either completely unconvinc
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62 Orchard productivity remains a k
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