Month by Which Set Levels of Accumulated Chill are Achieved
In the Western Cape, low PCUs (250) have historically been reached by May in the cooler parts, and by June in the remainder of the fruit production areas. By the projected intermediate future of the 2050s, 250 PCUs are generally…
Soil Characteristics
Marked spatial differences in agricultural productivity occur within a region because of different soil properties. The vertical sequence of soil properties regulates water entry into, storage and retention in, and redistribution within and out of the soil profile. The following…
Soil Water Content at Permanent Wilting Point
Marked spatial differences in agricultural productivity occur within a region because of different soil properties. The vertical sequence of soil properties regulates water entry into, storage and retention in, and redistribution within and out of the soil profile. The following…
Cold Nights
Fruit crops have critical lower temperature limits for growth and fruit quality. An air temperature < 6°C can have both positive impacts (e.g. induction of synthesis of red pigment in red fruit) and negative impacts (e.g. disruption of chilling accumulation;…
Daily Maximum Temperature in January
Physiological and growth processes reach their optimum in the region of 28-30°C air temperature and decline rapidly above 35°C. At 40-45°C these processes come to a halt and damage (e.g. bleaching, sunburn) can occur in exposed tissues. The mean monthly…
Soil Water Content at Field Capacity
Marked spatial differences in agricultural productivity occur within a region because of different soil properties. The vertical sequence of soil properties regulates water entry into, storage and retention in, and redistribution within and out of the soil profile. The following…
Sunburn
Because monitoring the temperature dynamics of all fruits throughout the entire growing season is challenging, models that simulate fruit surface temperature (FST) are developed and applied. One such experimentally based FST model (Li et al., 2014) calculates the maximum temperature…