The number of fruit carried per tree against the agronomic target for the variety and canopy — set at thinning, it is the single decision that trades total yield against fruit size and colour.
Target crop loads are set per variety and tree size to hit the desired fruit-size profile; carrying too many fruit shrinks size and packout, too few sacrifices yield, so the target is a fruit-number band rather than a maximum.
APAL Future Orchards ↗Crop load is where this season’s yield and next season’s are both decided: overloading pulls down size, grade and return bloom, while a light set leaves yield in the block. Watching the spread of loads across the orchard flags where thinning was too hard or too soft.
Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses, and keeps the figure current automatically.
Thin early and to target to lock in fruit size and grade.
Adjust load by block vigour and tree size, not a single orchard rule.
Balance crop load to protect return bloom and even out on/off years.
The number of fruit carried per tree against the agronomic target for the variety and canopy — set at thinning, it is the single decision that trades total yield against fruit size and colour.
You need: Fruit counts per tree (fruit), Trees per hectare (trees/ha), Target fruit number (fruit/tree). Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses and keeps the figure current automatically.
Target crop loads are set per variety and tree size to hit the desired fruit-size profile; carrying too many fruit shrinks size and packout, too few sacrifices yield, so the target is a fruit-number band rather than a maximum.
Thin early and to target to lock in fruit size and grade. Adjust load by block vigour and tree size, not a single orchard rule. Balance crop load to protect return bloom and even out on/off years.
Connect the software, spreadsheets and records you already keep, and Silo keeps every benchmark on this page current automatically.
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