Afourer canopy management Spain tour 2022

Introduction

An Afourer mandarin (Nadorcott) tour was conducted in November 2022, visiting many orchards in Spain and one in Morocco. The focus of the study tour was to learn about canopy management strategies to maintain productivity. There are 18 videos, one for each farm visited, and videos range from 2 to 10 minutes. A report is available that summarises the tour and the information from each farm visit (see link below).

Download the Afourer Canopy Management Spain Tour 2022 report (PDF, 1485.12 KB).

These videos are an output of the Hort Innovation Afourer best practice canopy management project (CT19002).

Summary points

Intensive pruning was a common practice in most Afourer orchards.
Key reasons to prune include:
- maintaining tree height below 3 m because pickers are not allowed to use tall ladders in Spain
- pruning to open up the tree structure helps them to dry more quickly and reduces fungal infections
- if the trees are not pruned, yields decline once the trees mature
Pruning takes about 5 to 10 minutes per tree depending on tree size ($4–$10 AUD/tree); labour cost is about $18 per hour Australian equivalent.
An orchard in Morocco was trying to manage trees by allowing watershoots to grow; yields have declined in mature orchards, and they need to change their strategy.
Spain has been in drought for a couple of seasons, with some growers receiving as low as 50% of their allocation. In Murcia, they also have high salinity water (3–5 ds/m). The growers recognise the value of good irrigation monitoring and practices.

Quick links

1) Transforming large Afourer trees with intensive pruning (9 min)
2) Intensively pruned 4-year-old Tango trees, Seville (4 min)
3) IFAPA research station mechanical pruning and high density (5 min)
4) Intensively pruned maturing Tango orchard, Murcia (4 min)
5) Murcia minimal vs intensive pruned 7-year-old Tango orchard (2 min)
6) D'Quart Tango orchard Afourer pruning demonstration (4 min)
7) Observations of intensively pruned navel trees (2 min)
8) 7-year-old Tango trees late summer pruning, Angel Mateo orchard (3 min)
9) Murcott pruning, Angel Mateo orchard Murcia, Spain (2 min)
10) Oronules clementine pruning Murcia, Spain (2 min)
11) Afourer mandarin growing under nets – autumn watershoot pruning (3 min)
12) Automated in-field soil solution analysis iOLAND, Murcia, Spain (4 min)
13) iOLAND Tango pruning trial (6 min)
14) iOLAND Afourer plant spacing discussion (2 min)
15) Tango mandarin high density trial (3 min)
16) Ori mandarin growing principles (9 min)
17) Afourer growing; watershoot layering, Morocco (6 min)
18) Afourer watershoot bending and pruning, Eurosemillas (10 min)

1) Transforming large Afourer trees with intensive pruning
9 min: Crescasa Farms, Seville. A mature Afourer (Nadorcott) orchard transformed over several years from large unmanageable trees to intensively pruned trees that can be managed from ground height.

2) Intensively pruned 4-year-old Tango trees, Seville
4 min: Polonio Farms, Seville. Intensive pruning of a 4-year-old Tango orchard to develop an open tree structure.

3) IFAPA research station mechanical pruning and high density
5 min: Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA), Seville. Inspecting mechanical hedging trials of high density Valencia and Navel orchards.

4) Intensively pruned maturing Tango orchard, Murcia
4 min: maturing Tango trees that are intensively pruned to develop an open tree structure.

5) Murcia minimal vs intensive pruned 7-year-old Tango orchard
2 min: a quick inspection of 7-year-old Tango trees that were pruned or not pruned.

6) D'Quart Tango orchard Afourer pruning demonstration
4 min: Afourer pruning demonstration by the grower.

7) Observations of intensively pruned navel trees
2 min: observations and commentary of intensively pruned Navel trees in Murcia.

8) 7-year-old Tango trees late summer pruning, Angel Mateo orchard
3 min: 7-year-old Tango trees with late summer pruning, grown with high salinity water.

9) Murcott pruning, Angel Mateo orchard Murcia, Spain
2 min: removing watershoots from the centre of Murcott trees.

10) Oronules clementine pruning Murcia, Spain
2 min: annual pruning of Oronules.

11) Afourer mandarin growing under nets – autumn watershoot pruning
3 min: Afourer mandarins growing under hail netting are annually pruned in spring and autumn.

12) Automated in-field soil solution analysis iOLAND, Murcia, Spain
4 min: in-field soil solution analysis and a soil moisture device that analyses soil solution regularly.

13) iOLAND Tango pruning trial
6 min: comparing 6-year-old Tango trees that were pruned or un-pruned for 2 years.

14) iOLAND Afourer plant spacing discussion
2 min: discussion on planting Afourer mandarins at 6 × 2 m spacing.

15) Tango mandarin high density trial
3 min: 3 m × 2 m 4-year-old Tango high density trial.

16) Ori mandarin growing principles
9 min: techniques to maintain Ori mandarin production.

17) Afourer growing; watershoot layering, Morocco
6 min: experiences growing Afourer mandarins by allowing watershoots to produce fruit.

18) Afourer watershoot bending and pruning, Eurosemillas
10 min: bending branches at a young age to form a V-tree shape and pruning the tree to continually turn over new wood, including using watershoots as bearing wood.