ISHS Acta Horticulturae 707: VII International Symposium on Modelling in Fruit Research and Orchard Management
TESTING A FLOWERING EXPERT SYSTEM FOR THE ‘DECISION INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR CITRUS’ |
| Authors: | L.G. Albrigo, H.W. Beck, J.I. Valiente |
| Keywords: | flower bud induction, flower bud differentiation, weather, climate |
| Abstract:
A production practices scheduling system has been developed that allows coordination of production activities to the proper stage of reproductive growth. The program is driven by a flowering expert system that predicts flowering intensity and date of bloom. Other major phenology stages of fruit development are predicted from bloom date. The flowering expert system considers flower bud induction temperatures, initiation temperatures for bud growth, and flower bud development temperatures. The flowering expert system has now been tested for 3 years with growers and extension personnel after 2 years of internal testing. It provides an estimate of the level of flowering intensity (flower bud induction level) and predicts bloom date to within +/- 7 days at more than 50 before bloom. The overall program performance, the experience with grower cooperators for system development and the testing process were all successful. This flowering expert system provides growers with information about weather effects on the citrus flowering process under Florida conditions. Under favorable weather conditions, growers can now use the system to determine when to apply drought stress in order to prevent some early flowering events and/or apply sprays to either enhance or diminish flowering intensity. | |
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