Strategies for flower induction to improve orchard productivity: From compensation of alternate bearing to off-season fruit production

Abstract

© 2007, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Due to alternate and irregular bearing of fruit trees, which occurs at various extent amongst different species and cultivars, the yield of many species of fruit tree is erratic. Uncertainties regarding the time of harvest and the quality and quantity of fruit can seriously affect the marketability of the product (Monselise and Goldschmidt, 1982; Westwood, 1995; Subhadrabandhu, 1999; Souza et al., 2004). Unfavourable climatic conditions during flower induction (FI) or the flowering period are amongst the most important causes of this phenomenon. Often large areas or even whole countries face the same problem simultaneously leading to overproduction and low prices in one year and a low return from fruit production the next. Equalising these fluctuations therefore would help to make fruit production more profitable and sustainable. Another option for raising the return from fruit production would be to extend or totally shift the harvest season by artificially influencing conventional and off-season flowering.