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Researchers at the School of Agricultural UPCT the Polytechnic of Valencia and IMIDA (Murciano Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Development) have achieved a mandarin pruning system that improves the economic performance of this crop.
Incorporation of mechanical pruning, which combined with the manual allows more precisely control the size of the trees and the width of the streets, facilitating other tasks such as phytosanitary treatments is.
The tests have been known to reduce up to 13% collection time.
The results are published the international journal Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research.
According to investigators, the citrus manual pruning is one of the processes that generate costs to the farmer.
It is estimated that one hectare pruning are needed about 100 hours, which means, on average, at a cost of 900 euros.
The study focused on the cultivation of mandarin Fortune, indicates Bernardo Martín Górriz, researcher at the Department of Food Engineering and Agricultural Equipment UPCT.
The Valencia and Murcia researchers evaluated the performance and quality of fruit for three campaigns, using different types of pruning: only two intensities manual and mechanical, manual review, alternating with exclusively manual pruning.
The combination of mechanical pruning with manual review and exclusively manual pruning can reduce the time required to complete this process.
"In this study, and without trimmers have been trained to combine both practices, the reduction was about 13%.
A more practical would allow faster hand pruning when reviewed the mechanical pre-pruning, thus reducing the time spent "adds Torregrosa.
Likewise, the use of mechanical pre-pruning allows more precisely control the size of the trees and the width of the streets, facilitating other tasks such as phytosanitary treatments
The study, entitled "Effect of mechanical pruning on the yield and quality of 'Fortune' mandarins', was conducted during 2009-2012 and was funded by Ministry of Agriculture and Water of the Region of Murcia.
This work received first prize for the best paper in the section "Mechanical Harvesting in fruit" in the "VII Iberian Congress of Horticultural Science Agroingeniería and" held in Madrid in August 2013.
At work the researchers B. Martin-Gorriz, I. Porras Castillo and A. Torregrosa involved.
The work has been published in Open Access.
Source: UPCT
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