HELIOS project update: Latest advances in orchard management – The Fruit Grower
Trying novel ideas in the field to save growers the cost of experiments with new ways of increasing orchard productivity ...
Summarises the ambition of the fruit team at H L Hutchinson Ltd with their HELIOS and associated projects. Joanna Wood reports
Why not borrow ideas from viticulture and grow apples like grapes, or from solar farms and train trees like a solar panel?
Now five years into this ground-breaking 10-year project in top-fruit, named HELIOS (Hutchinsons Enhanced Light Interception Orchard System) the horticultural team came up with the concept based on the simple premise that the ultimate yield of apples is relative to how much light the tree receives. Could consistently higher crops of quality fruit be achieved if the tree is able to capture more sunlight? The team wanted to think ahead and outside the normal realms of agronomic advice. It should be possible to intercept more light, which would result in higher yields. Could this be achieved by redesigning the canopy and tree architecture? The HELIOS project was set up to test if this theory could be proved. How can yields be increased? And can an orchard be established more cost-effectively and be robot-ready?
There are two orchards of Gala set up, one in the west Midlands and one in Kent. In August, agronomist Rob Saunders took me on a tour of the HELIOS East site at Hoaden Court farm near Ash in Kent to see how the project is developing and discover what they’ve learnt so far about the production systems being trialled. How can orchards ten years into the future be pushed to produce yields over 100tonnes/ha instead of the 60-70tonnes/ha at present?
Rob makes the point that in most fruit wall orchards 60% of the light is lost. In New Zealand researchers have calculated that it could be possible to capture 90% of the radiation during their growing season, delivering the promise of the biological ‘upper limits’ of possible yields in New Zealand’s fruit growing environments, reaching around 170tonnes/ha. Work led by Dr Stuart Tustin’s group, based in Hawkes Bay, is looking at how to go from 60% to 90%. They wanted to design a system that didn’t require more trees. Using narrower alleys down to 2.2m wide and adapting the fruit wall to become a ‘tall vineyard’ with apple trees trained like double Guyot vines, is a quick summary of one of the main ideas which Rob has put in practice in Kent, comparing it with V-shaped leaning spindle trees on M9.
A more vigorous M116 rootstock is required, and the trees are described as ‘Jesus trees’ having the double Guyot effect with the primary stems trained to 20% above horizontal, unlike vines, to avoid vigour loss. A cane is necessary for each upright stem as apples are heavy. The orchard comprises Gala Galaxy on M116 at 1.5m tree spacing with four or five stems per tree. The target canopy width is 0.3m. This gives a total of only 1,904 trees/ha but 7,616 to 9,620 stems/ha with 3.5m between the rows. If the row width is reduced to just 2.22m that equates to 3,030 trees/ha with 12,120 to 15,150 stems/ha. This ‘orchard of the future’ is more expensive, in terms of its support system, and requires a dedicated workforce all year round to engage in tree management. This new orchard design would require some rethinking when it comes to the use of technology. For example, smaller robotic harvesting machines would need to be designed for narrower rows. Rob says that the results so far have been encouraging, and so much so that Nigel Kitney, who oversees the west Midlands site, has already planted more in his own orchards.
In the ‘solar panel’ trial, the ‘photovoltaic’ configuration apple trees on M9 are trained at 50 degrees to the ground facing south with rows orientated east/west, with a reflective mulch underneath to help colour the fruit under the canopy. With a full crop the weight is so great that a very substantial support system is necessary. There was a full crop with well coloured fruit on the upper side of the ‘panel’ and, as Rob indicated, these are very easy to pick.
From rising costs and labour shortages to diminishing crop protection options and evolving pest and disease threats, orchard managers face some huge challenges. There has never been a more important time to find innovative ways of improving the productivity and sustainability of UK apple orchards, and it is a challenge Hutchinsons is tackling head-on with a host of exciting projects.
Under the HELIOS banner Rob gave updates on several research projects with great acronyms such as IRIS (improving resilience in scab control). As access to actives for scab control becomes more limited, we need to test new alternatives to help scab programmes to be more resilient. Deploying biostimulants when there is a good leaf canopy after starting the season with conventional fungicides, and then only using fungicides if the RIMPRO model goes beyond a set threshold, gave interesting results in the first year. Some products proved useless, but Rob reports strong success for some biostimulants, so they are repeating the replicated trials this season.
The Precision Orchard Dosing Project (PODS) aims to treat trees as individuals to overcome the problem of variability in orchards. This is an innovate UK project that combines precision GPS and RTK guidance, LIDAR scanning, drone surveying, digital mapping, and variable rate sprayer technology, to variably apply growth regulators and thinners according to the requirements of individual trees. The system has been tested on several farms in Kent and a prototype system is currently being developed for commercial operation. Precision Orchard Management and Environment (POME) is a new successor project to PODS, which will push the boundaries of precision dosing even further, to investigate whether the technology can be used to precisely apply pest and disease control products on a tree-by-tree basis. The Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) is among several partners in the consortium.
Hutchinsons is also involved in supporting top-fruit’s journey to ‘net zero’. What happens to an apple orchard when it reaches the end of its life is being investigated as part of a new research collaboration. The two-year feasibility study is being led by British Apples and Pears Ltd in partnership with Adrian Scripps Ltd, R E Collins Limited, Stocks Farm, H. L. Hutchinson Ltd, and supported by the University of Edinburgh and Crop Health and Protection (CHAP). The work is centred around the use of rapid thermal decomposition methods (pyrolysis) in dessert fruit orchards at the end of their productive cycles, as a sustainable alternative to the existing ‘grub and burn’ approach. Not only will this reduce associated carbon emissions, but the resulting biochar has potential to be used as a soil improver to increase orchard yields and productivity.
The project will investigate variables such as feedstock processing approaches, the type of pyrolysis used, business models for processing, and the impact of biochar on soil health. Biochar is extremely resistant to bacterial breakdown, therefore provides a stable, long-term store of carbon, that can also be a useful soil improver in orchards. Hutchinsons is working with sites in Kent and the west Midlands to test the technology. Rob is particularly interested to see the resulting biochar fed back into the ground, offering soil health benefits whilst contributing positively to the sustainability credentials of top-fruit production.
Economic opportunities for growers will also be reviewed, to evaluate the potential use of carbon credits as a new revenue stream opportunity, to take advantage of emerging carbon markets. The project is funded by Defra and UKRI through the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP).
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