Development of Precision apple fruit growing techniques: Monitoring strategies for yield and highquality fruit production

Sustainable fruit production can be summarized by the three "E" concepts - economic, environmental, and ethical. Precision horticulture can provide very useful tools for improving both orchard profitability and its resource use. Despite monitoring soil and environmental parameters being common practice in horticulture, targeting the fruit as the primary organ for monitoring is not. The analysis of fruit growth performance, as predictive algorithms of fruit growth become available for an increasing number of species, is currently a novelty regarding precision systems. A budding start-up from the University of Bologna, Italy has developed a protocol for precision fruit growing which is being adopted commercially, as it allows forecasting of size class distribution and yield of an orchard several months before harvest. This information is highly valuable, both for the grower and for the marketer. It allows the grower, technicians, and orchard operators to promptly adjust orchard management during the season, moving production closer to the most profitable quality/yield ratio and optimizing orchard resource inputs. Meanwhile, marketers can start earlier with organizing their marketing campaigns and the logistics involved, while reaping the benefits of the improved quality of the product.