PRECISION CROP LOAD MANAGEMENT WITH TARGETED CHEMICAL BLOSSOM THINNING FOR APPLES

To achieve a good crop yield and fruit quality, it is critical to demonstrate a well-planned crop load management approach throughout the season. During the blossom period, apple trees generally produce a large number of flowers, which later can be pollinated to set fruit. Each flower requires resource allocation from the tree to grow properly and turn into an apple fruit. However, when the number of flowers is too high, an abundance of small, low-quality apples can result in things that may be unworthy for sale. Therefore, it is very important to adjust the number of flowers to set fruits. Chemical blossom thinning has proven to be one of the most effective methods to improve apple quality, size, and color. However, using conventional orchard sprayers which apply a noticeable amount of chemicals without precision control results in huge chemical wastes and environmental impact. This project aims to develop a targeted chemical blossom thinning system for apple trees to achieve precision crop load management at the flower stage. The expected outcomes of this project will be an integrated spraying system that can conduct chemical blossom thinning with high precision and significant chemical usage reduction. In a long term, this system will have a significant positive impact on crop management and improving the economic and environmental sustainability of the U.S. tree fruit industry.