Fruit Crop Ecology and Management - UVM Apple Orchard

6
This book explores fruit
production at three different
scales. Imagine looking down
at the Earth from a satellite
equipped with a powerful
telescope. You can focus in on
a single leaf or zoom out to a
larger scale until you see the
entire orchard or field
surrounded by its landscape
setting. Also envision you have
a special filtering lens that
reveals the human setting of
markets, neighbors and
policies that affect fruit
production. These diagrams
illustrate the three scales that
organize the flow of information
throughout this book.
In Chapter 1, we zoom in for
a close look at the fruit plant
and the natural and managed
environments that surround it.
Climate and weather,
topography, surrounding
ecosystems, the soil and farm
Fruit Crop Ecology and Management: Introduction
A guide to reading Fruit Crop Ecology and Management
Chapter 1. The agricultural
ecosystem.
biodiversity are all contributors.
The mix of sunlight,
temperature, water, essential
elements, soil quality and
biodiversity at your site affects
management decisions and the
resulting outcomes. For optimal
results, we need to understand
how the plant and soil take up
carbon and minerals and
transform them to perform a
range of functions.
Chapter 2. Managing the
community of pests and
beneficials.
In Chapter 2, our perspective
shifts to view the community of
organisms around the plant.
These insects, mites, microbes
and nematodes are very
important ecological elements
in the orchard, vineyard or
field. Climate and weather add
to the complexity, driving
organism spread and
development and at the same
time offering important
information for monitoring and
preventing pest problems. A
look at landscape ecology
reveals the effects of the
immediate surroundings and
regional landscape on the
community of organisms.
Chapter 3. The human setting.
We filter the information in
Chapter 3 to view the people
of the farm community and the
world beyond as they affect
production decisions. Every
grower and consultant feels the
pressure of integrating
economics and marketing with
the biology of the system while
respecting the law. For fruit
crop ecology, this means
meeting quality standards of
consumers and processors,
building mutually beneficial
interactions between farm and
non-farm residents, and
providing a safe, attractive
place in which to live and work.