Winter chill is essential for cold-zone perennials, while deciduous plants avoid chilling damage by entering winter dormancy. This process begins from leaf drop to bud break. The first part of dormancy is technically called endodormancy, where tree growth is limited by some internal factor of the plant (specifically the bud). A certain amount of cold temperatures are necessary to end this first stage of winter dormancy. This is called chill requirement.
Warm winters with low cold accumulation generate low fruit yield as a result of floral abortion and poor fruit set, due to altered development of flower buds as well as inadequate mobilization of reserve metabolites.
AGRALIA is constantly searching for new and innovative technologies that help to continuously improve production management. This is why AGRICOOLER SR100® It is focused on being able to help in the accumulation of cold hours, preventing daytime IR radiation from raising the temperature of the plants.
Treatments
T1: Control treatment.
T2: Agricooler SR100® cover arranged on a tunnel structure.
T3: Control treatment with cover.T4: Agricooler SR100® cover placed on a cover structure.
T4: Agricooler SR100® cover arranged on a cover structure.
Image 1. Installation of AGRICOOLER SR100
With Agricooler SR100® you can see uniform and early sprouting, without Agricooler you see uneven and delayed sprouting.
Figure 2. Percentage of fruit by size category.
During the current season, tissue temperature and radiation measurements have been taken during the cold accumulation period, during which we were able to observe significant differences, expecting a successful season in the accumulation of cold in the plants.
Image 3. Tissue temperature measurement with and without Agricooler SR100® performed on 06-22-2022.
Results
Figure 1. Phenological evolution from dormant bud to fruit set on the BBCH scale. The segmented line highlights the state of swollen bud (53), full flowering (65) and fruit set (72).
Image 2. Review of phenological states carried out on 09-08-2021.
Image 4. Radiation Measurement (Lux x 100) of
fabric with and without Agricooler SR100® made on 06-22-2022.
Conclusions
The use of agricooler SR100®, in addition to stabilizing the temperature of the plant during the winter break, has benefits for harvesting.
Morales and Castro (2018) point out that “The Cold Portions model is better suited to the conditions of central Chile than other models, because our summers are warmer. SAIA Project, CEAF (Center for Advanced Studies in Fruit Growing).” Through the cold portion model we improve the quality of the accumulated cold for a better physiological development of the plant, generating an advance in harvest and an increase in size. The main effect of Agricooler SR100® is not the reduction of air temperature, but rather the decrease in temperature of the wood and stems.
