FRUIT PRODUCTION -TEMPERATE CLIMATE

Learn to Grow Fruit in a Temperate Climate

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Temperate Fruit Growing
   • Deciding What to Grow
   • Crop Selection Criteria
   • Options of Types of Fruits: Citrus, Berries, Vine Fruits, Pome Fruits, Stone Fruits, Nuts, etc
   • The Botany of a Fruit and Fruit Development
   • The Flower and Inflorescence
   • Types of Fruit: simple, aggregate, multiple
   • Modification of Fruits
   • How Seed Forms, Buds
   • Terminology
   • Morphological Changes in Plants
2. Establishing an Orchard
   • Considerations when Establishing an Orchard
   • Site Selection; size, location, climate, water, pest and disease exposure, etc
   • Calculating Effective Rainfall
   • Drawing an Orchard Plan
3. General Cultural Practices
   • Understanding Soils
   • Physical Soil Characteristics; soil texture, structure, etc
   • Chemical Characteristics of Soil; pH, Nutrition
   • Soil Water
   • Simple Soil Tests
   • Dealing with Fruit Tree Problems
   • Identifying a Problem
   • Pests; chewing insects, sucking insects, other pests, birds
   • Diseases; fungal, virus, bacterial
   • Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
   • Chemical Pest Control
   • Non Chemical Pest Control
   • Common Environmental Problems
   • Staking Plants, Cages and tree guards
   • Weed Control
   • Nutrition and Plant Feeding
   • Pruning Fruit Trees
   • Pruning Systems
   • Water, Drainage and Irrigation
4. Tree Fruits
   • Deciduous Fruit Trees
   • Winter Chilling Requirements
   • Climate Needs
   • Choosing Varieties
   • Pollination Needs
   • Growing Apples
   • Apricot
   • Cherry
   • Fig
   • Loquat
   • Asian Pear or Nashi
   • Olive
   • Peach and Nectarine
   • Pear, Plum
   • Pepino, Pomegranate, Quince, Tree Tomato
   • Using Compost
5. Vines, Nuts and Berries
   • Nut Growing Introduction
   • Walnut Culture
   • Chestnut, Almond, Macadamia, Pecan, American Hazelnut, Filbert, etc
   • Passionfruit Culture
   • Chinese Gooseberry
   • Grape Cultivation
   • Overview of Berry Fruit Growing
   • Strawberry Growing
   • Raspberry, Cape Gooseberry, Mulberry, Blueberry, Elderberry, Currants, Cranberry, Brambles
6. Citrus
   • Introduction to Citrus Culture
   • Overview of Species
   • Temperature Tolerance
   • Culture and Planting Citrus
   • Citrus Problems and treatments
   • Citrus Directory; review of main types
7. Cultural Management of a Fruit Plantation or Orchard
   • Developing a Maintenance Program
   • The Production Plan
   • Producing a Flow Chart (Timetable) for a crop
8. Marketing Your Produce
   • Introduction
   • Marketing Options
   • Conducting Market Research
   • Standards; quality, quantity, cost efficiency
   • Sales Price
   • Example of Harvest and Post Harvest treatment of a Crop

Aims

• Identify different types of fruit crops, which can be successfully grown in the learner's region.
• Explain the nature of the fruit industry in the learner's region (locality).
• Determine the cultural requirements for different fruit crops.
• Develop a plan for the establishment of an orchard.
• Formulate appropriate methods for marketing specific fruit crops grown in the learner's locality.
• Develop a calendar for cultural management of a fruit plantation, or orchard.

What You Will Do

• You will learn a wide variety of things, through a combination of reading, interacting with tutors, undertaking research and practical tasks. Here are just some of the things you will be doing:
• Compile a resource file of different sources of information regarding
  • commercial fruit varieties.
• Compare the facilities used to produce different fruit crops, for a specified locality.
• Determine criteria for selecting a fruit variety to grow as a commercial crop,
• Select different fruit varieties with commercial potential for a specified location.
• Analyse the physical layout of a specified orchard.
• Determine the scope of commercial fruit growing in a specified locality.
• Demonstrate standard soil tests to three different soils to determine:
  • Soil type
  • pH
  • Drainage
  • Water holding capacity
• Evaluate the different soils tested to determine their suitability for growing different fruit varieties.
• Analyse the culture
• Watering
• Weed control
• Soil management
• Pruning
• Fertilising
• Pest control
• Disease control
• Determine soil management practices, including:
  • Nutrition
  • Soil structure
  • Cultivation
  • Weed control
• Determine the susceptibility of specified fruit species to pest and disease problems.
• Explain how to control a range of different, specified pests and diseases, on different fruit varieties grown.
• Develop sets of guidelines for pruning different types of fruiting plants.
• Determine the factors which are critical to growing fruit trees in a specific locality.
• Determine criteria to select a site for fruit growing in a specific locality.
• Compare the physical layout of different orchards.
• Prepare a plan for establishing a fruit growing area, I including:
• Concept layout plan drawn to scale
• Materials list (including plants)
• Cost estimates for establishment.
• Analyse different marketing systems in the fruit industry, including at local, national and international levels.
• Explain the common reasons for price fluctuations in the fruit industry.
• Compare different fruit crops in relation to different factors, including:
  • Storage requirements
  • Storage life
  • Harvesting time
  • Shelf life
  • Transport to market
• Evaluate the presentation and packaging of three different fruits, for marketing through different marketing systems.
• Analyse different marketing strategies used by a specific fruit grower.
• Develop a marketing strategy, including:
  • Marketing stages
  • Marketing schedule (ie. timetable)
  • Estimated marketing costs
  • Handling procedures
  • Promotions, for a specific fruit crop.
• Differentiate between the cultural practices undertaken by different growers, on the same crop, grown in different localities.
• Determine the cultural practices necessary to grow different fruit crops for a twelve month period, on a specified site.
• Prepare a monthly calendar, covering a twelve month period, for cultural practices in a fruit plantation or orchard.

Working as a Fruit Grower

Orchardists grow fruit or nuts (and occasionally other products) on trees. Their work can involve tree planting on a new site or removing and replanting trees on an old site. Planting is only a small, but important part of the job.

Unlike other horticultural crops, fruit and nut trees can take many years from when they are planted, until when they are productive i.e. producing a viable crop. Many will take 3 to 5 years to become fully productive, and some more than 10 years. Some fruits (e.g. pawpaw and banana) may reach full production within a year or two of planting. The work involved on an orchard can be different while the trees are establishing, to what it is after the plants are established.

Once established, the work of an orchardist generally follows a standard annual program. Fruit (or nuts) will be harvested at a certain time each year, and after harvest there will be periods when the orchardist needs to attend to weed control (e.g. cultivation, mulching or spraying), pruning (more important with some crops than others), fertilising, watering, drainage works and other tasks.

Some fruits will be harvested and sent to market for sale immediately. Sometimes though, the orchardist will harvest and store the produce in a cool store, or under controlled atmosphere, then sold throughout the year as and when it is advantageous to get an optimum price.

There are periods when the workload is less, and other times (usually harvest) when work demands are hectic and hours of work can be very long.

Where They Work?
Most people who work on orchards are the owners, family members, or seasonal (usually unskilled or semi-skilled) workers. Many orchardists will employ seasonal labour for picking fruit, and some employ casual or part-time labour for other things such as pruning.

Opportunities
Certain fruits and nuts are more productive and can attract much higher levels of income than others. Mainstream fruits (e.g. oranges and apples) can sometimes be over-produced and when that happens, the income may be poor, but in a season when production is low (e.g. during a drought or after a flood) these mainstream fruits may be in low supply and high demand, and the orchardist can do very well. Some orchardists have reduced risk and improved profitability by value adding to their produce (e.g. making wine, producing preserves, or producing dried fruits). Others have focussed on growing rare and exotic varieties, creating a niche market by supplying a fruit that no one else supplies.

Nuts offer a slightly different opportunity to fruits because they generally keep better. If you harvest a nut crop, you can transport it to a different market without fear of the produce bruising or rotting, and if there is a glut when you harvest a crop, the nuts can be stored for a long time until prices improve, then sold.

Large fruit producers have the opportunity of signing contracts with processing factories or supermarket chains which guarantees their sales; contract growing though, is always a compromise where you accept a lower than optimum price, in order to be certain of a sale at harvest.

Many fruits will have dozens, and some hundreds, of named cultivars.  Even within the same type of fruit, the characteristics of the fruit can vary a lot (e.g. taste, what it can be used for, time of year it is harvested, etc.). If, for example, an orchardist grows all of the same variety of apple, it may only be suitable to selling for cooking, or for juicing, or for eating fresh - but not all three. If the entire orchard is the same apple variety, the apples may all need to be harvested around the same time. If you are harvesting fruit with a mechanical harvester and selling under contract to a juicing plant, it can be advantageous to be harvesting everything in the same week. However, if you are harvesting by hand and selling fruit over an extended period, you would be better growing apples that can be harvested at different times. There are apple varieties that can be harvested mid to late summer, and others that are not harvested till mid autumn.

Know the Conditions of Your Site -and Choose Cultivars that Suit