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Horticulture · Yield & water · Potential

Yield-gap to potential

81% of light-limited potential

Actual yield expressed as a percentage of the light-limited potential the canopy could have grown. It separates the ceiling set by tree structure and sunlight interception (a longer-term investment) from the gap set by seasonal management (which you can move now).

Worked example · Actual ÷ light-limited potential
81% Achieved · 55 t/ha Gap · 13 t/ha of 68 t/ha potential
Actual ÷ light-limited potential
The benchmark

Orchard yield is ultimately capped by the light the canopy intercepts; research consistently shows a gap between average orchards and the light-limited potential, with leading growers closing it through canopy design and crop-load management.

APAL / AgVic Research ↗
What it signals

The size of the gap is your improvement budget in tonnes. A persistent gap usually points at canopy fill, crop-load or variability between blocks rather than a run of poor seasons, and tells you where the next dollar of renewal or management pays back.

Data required to calculate
Actual fruit yieldt/haLight-limited potential yieldt/ha

Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses, and keeps the figure current automatically.

How to improve it
01

Fill the canopy space to intercept more light with training and pruning.

02

Manage crop load per zone to lift the poorest-performing blocks first.

03

Reduce block-to-block variability through spatial (zoned) management.

Questions & answers

What is yield-gap to potential?

Actual yield expressed as a percentage of the light-limited potential the canopy could have grown. It separates the ceiling set by tree structure and sunlight interception (a longer-term investment) from the gap set by seasonal management (which you can move now).

What data do you need to calculate yield-gap to potential?

You need: Actual fruit yield (t/ha), Light-limited potential yield (t/ha). Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses and keeps the figure current automatically.

What is a good yield-gap to potential benchmark?

Orchard yield is ultimately capped by the light the canopy intercepts; research consistently shows a gap between average orchards and the light-limited potential, with leading growers closing it through canopy design and crop-load management.

How do you improve yield-gap to potential?

Fill the canopy space to intercept more light with training and pruning. Manage crop load per zone to lift the poorest-performing blocks first. Reduce block-to-block variability through spatial (zoned) management.

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