PLANT DORMATION CONTROL SYSTEM

Abstract

A dormancy control system for use with plants such as fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry bushes planted in commercial settings. The dormancy control system employs vertical shade structures to control the dormancy of plants such as fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry bush crops. The dormancy control system results in dramatic increases in crop yield, and may be coupled with orchard planting directional orientation, evaporative cooling systems, and chemical and hormone based spray applications.

Description

PLANT DORMANCY CONTROL SYSTEM TECHNICAL FIELDThe invention relates to a dormancy control system for use with plants such as fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry bushes planted in commercial settings. More particularly, the invention pertains to the use of vertical shade structures to control the dormancy of plants such as fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry bush crops, optionally coupled with orchard planting directional orientation, the use of evaporative cooling systems, and the use of various chemical and hormone based spray applications. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMany plants, including stone and pome fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry bushes, develop next year’s buds during the summer each year. In the autumn of each year, these new buds go through a multi-stage process resulting in a dormant state. The nature and quality of the dormancy of these buds has been understood to be primarily controlled by the temperature to which the buds are exposed. Each species (or in many cases each variety) of fruit tree, nut tree, and perennial berry bush has specific dormancy requirements, which are typically expressed as minimum chilling units. Each chill unit is roughly equivalent to 1 hour of bud exposure to the required chilling temperature, or a lower temperature, for that variety. There are several different accepted methods for calculating chill units, and depending on the plant species or varieties involved some of these methods take into account the greater or lesser chilling effect of specific temperatures by assigning higher or lower chill units to each hour spent within specific temperature ranges. Depending on the amount of chilling units required by each variety of plant for a healthy dormancy, various plant varieties are referred to as“high chill” varieties (meaning that they require a large number of chilling units) or“low chill” varieties (meaning that they require a small number of chilling units.)If plant buds do not annually receive the minimum required chilling units, or if plant buds do not otherwise annually undergo a healthy dormancy period for that species or variety, then a number of problems arise. These problems include delayed or inadequate foliation and flowering, or delayed fruit production, or fruit production in non-commercial quantities or quality.It has also been important to match the dormancy requirements of a particular variety with the location where that variety is planted. Even though a planting location may have ideal growing conditions during the main growing season for a particular variety, that same planting location may not naturally have the required dormancy conditions for that variety. A mismatch of dormancy requirements and planting location can cause serious problems. For example, planting a low chill variety in a cold area may result in trees flowering too early and being damaged by late frosts. As another example, planting a high chill variety in a warm area may result in little or no fruit production or low quality fruit production.Cherries, in particular, present a good example of the effects of a mismatch between dormancy requirements and planting locations. Cherries grow very well in warm areas during their main growing season. But, even with low-chill cherry varieties, it is difficult and sometimes impossible in those warm areas to obtain the minimum required chill units or to have a healthy dormancy period.In early efforts to help control dormancy, commercial fruit growers tried to use overhead nets or shading, stretched horizontally on cables above the orchard, to protect their orchards from direct solar radiation during the autumn and winter months. This approach did not work, however, because the net / shade structures trapped heat and infrared light beneath the net / shade structure and actually caused the average plant bud temperature to increase during the autumn and winter– the opposite effect of what the growers were trying to achieve. These horizontal overhead net / shade structures actually exacerbated the dormancy problem the growers were trying to solve.Currently, growers of fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berries use evaporative cooling systems (including overhead water sprinklers as one example) in their orchards and fields to help keep plant bud temperatures at or below the required minimum chill temperature for the required number of hours (chill units). These growers also use several chemical or hormone based sprays to help induce, maintain, break, or otherwise affect plant bud dormancy. Some growers use both evaporative cooling and chemical / hormone sprays in their efforts to improve the quality and duration of plant bud dormancy in these warm areas. Despite all of these efforts, and despite use of low-chill plant varieties, there are still many years where commercial fruit growers do not get a commercial crop in warm growing areas, due to a failure of the plant buds to move into a healthy dormant state for the minimum required period of time. If the global climate continues to warm, the insufficient dormancy issue may be an increasing problem for cherry growers as well as other stone fruit and pome fruit growers.There are also situations where a grower wants to either induce early dormancy to produce an earlier crop, wants to extend dormancy to produce a later crop, or wants to create a dormancy period for an everbearing plant species or variety in an everbearing commercial planting location in order to concentrate or control the timing of harvest. In all three situations growers have attempted to use evaporative cooling coupled with chemical / hormone sprays, but without any significant success.Cherries present a good example of the need to produce early or late crops. Producing early or late crops of cherries, for example, can be highly profitable for growers.No-chill ever-bearing blueberry plants present a good example of the need to concentrate and control the time of harvest for ever-bearing plant varieties arises with commercial blueberry fields planted below a latitude of 34 degrees in either the northern or southern hemispheres. While everbearing blueberry plants are very productive on an annual basis, when planted in everbearing locations, only a small number of blueberries on each plant are ever ripe at any one time. This greatly increases the labor costs, because pickers may need to pass through and harvest those fields ten or more times during the year. Inducing a dormancy period in those no- chill ever-bearing blueberry plants would help to concentrate the entire annual production of blueberries into a much shorter and better defined harvest period, reducing the number of passes by pickers through the field while still maintaining a high annual yield.Accordingly, there is a need for a system of controlling and improving dormancy conditions for fruit trees, nut trees, and perennial berry plants, to allow these crops to be commercially grown in areas that otherwise do not naturally have optimal, or even adequate, dormancy conditions, and to control the date or duration of harvest.The following is a disclosure of the present invention that will be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG.1 is a perspective view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade fabric deployed, according to an embodiment of the invention;FIG.2 is a perspective view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade fabric retracted, according to an embodiment of the invention;FIG. 3 is side view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade fabric retracted, according to an embodiment of the invention.FIG.4 is an overhead view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade structures directionally oriented in-line with E-W plant rows and the vertical shade fabric retracted, according to an embodiment of the invention;FIG.5 is an overhead view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade structures directionally oriented in-line with E-W plant rows and the vertical shade fabric deployed, according to an embodiment of the invention;FIG.6 is an overhead view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade structures directionally oriented transversely across N-S plant rows and the vertical shade fabric retracted, according to an embodiment of the invention;FIG.7 is an overhead view of the plant dormancy control system, with the vertical shade structures directionally oriented transversely across N-S plant rows and the vertical shade fabric deployed, according to an embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTSThe invention relates to a plant dormancy control system, employing vertical shade structures 15 that are installed in-line with plant rows 34 oriented in an East-West direction (E- W), or that are installed transversely across plant rows 34 oriented in a North-South direction (N- S). FIGs.1 through 7 show the plant dormancy control system 10, according to certain preferred embodiments of the present invention.In one preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system of the present invention is for use in a commercial planting 11 of cherry trees, which may be referred to herein simply as the“orchard.” The commercial planting includes a multiple of plants 12 that produce fruit 14. For the purposes of the foregoing disclosure, the plants 12 can be referred to simply as“cherry trees,” the fruit 14 can be referred to simply as‘cherries,’ and the commercial planting of cherry trees can be referred to as a‘cherry orchard.’In another preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system of the present invention is for use in a commercial planting 11 of blueberries, which may be referred to herein simply as the“blueberry field.” The commercial planting includes a multiple of plants 12 that produce fruit 14. For the purposes of the foregoing disclosure, the plants 12 can be referred to simply as“blueberry bushes,” the fruit 14 can be referred to simply as‘blueberries,’ and the commercial planting of blueberry bushes can be referred to as a‘blueberry field.’All of the preferred embodiments for plant dormancy control system 10 that are disclosed herein can be used alternatively with any variety of fruit tree, nut tree, or perennial berry bushes that requires dormancy, or that will tolerate extended or induced dormancy. All varieties of stone fruit varieties, pome fruit varieties, nut varieties, and many perennial berry varieties require dormancy periods and each have their own specific minimum chilling requirements. Additionally, there are no-chill ever-bearing varieties of plants that will nevertheless tolerate an induced dormant or semi-dormant period of time for the purpose of concentrating the harvest time period for those varieties.The plant dormancy control system 10 of the present invention includes a vertical shade structure 15 which includes vertical supports 18 in the form of wood, metal, plastic, or concrete poles that support shade fabric 16, which can be deployed (shown in FIGs 1, 5, and 7) or retracted (shown in FIGs 2, 3, 4, and 6), with the vertical shade structure 15 oriented in-line with plant rows 34 that run approximately in an East-West direction (E-W), as shown in FIGs 4 and 5, or a vertical shade structure 15 oriented transversely across plant rows 34 that run approximately in a North-South direction (N-S), as shown in FIGs 6 and 7.A most preferred plant dormancy control system 10 consists of vertical shade structures 15 that are installed in a commercial planting 11 directionally oriented in-line with plant rows 34 that run approximately E-W, and includes vertical supports 18 and shade fabric 16 that is attached to an upper support cable 20 and a lower support cable 24, with upper support cable 20 attached to each vertical support 18 by upper support cable attachment 22, and lower support cable 24 attached to each vertical support 18 by lower support cable attachment 26, as shown in the perspective views of FIGs. 1 and 2, the side view of FIG. 3. When shade fabric 16 is vertically deployed, vertical shade structure 18 produces shade 32 during daylight hours by blocking direct solar radiation 42 produced by the sun 40 from reaching plants 12, as shown in FIGs 1, 5, 7. Taking into consideration the latitude, orientation, and slope of the commercial planting 11 as a whole, vertical shade structures 15 are preferably placed to create a shaded area 30 during daylight hours in the form of a triangular prism that substantially encompasses plants 12 in each plant row 34, and which substantially blocks direct solar radiation 42 from reaching plants 12, as shown in FIGs 1, 5, and 7. The triangular prism of shaded area 30 consists of a triangular shaded area with three legs (ground leg 38, vertical leg 37, and shade leg 39) created by vertical shade structure 18 and that extends the full length of plant row 34. The ground leg 38 extends from the base of the vertical support structure 18 to shade edge 32. The vertical leg 37 extends from the base of the vertical support structure 18 to top of shade fabric 16 where it is attached to upper support cable 20. The shade leg 39 extends from the top of the shade fabric 16 where it is attached to upper support cable 20 down to shade edge 32.As shown in FIGs. 1 through 7, the vertical shade structure 15 for the plant dormancy control system 10 also includes a shade fabric 16 that extends vertically approximately four to six meters from the ground surface 36 for plants 12 that are fruit or nut trees, or that extends vertically approximately two to three meters from the ground surface 36 for plants 12 that are perennial berry bushes like blueberries. The shade fabric 16 is held in a substantially vertical position by upper support cable 20 and a lower support cable 24, as shown in FIGs.1, 2, and 3, and held up by vertical shade structure 15, and stretches along each plant row 34 (or transversely across all plant rows 34) of commercial planting 11. Most preferably, the shade fabric is made of EXTENDAY brand of nonreflective shade fabrics, as manufactured by Extenday Advanced Horticultural Fabrics, of Auckland, New Zealand. In a preferred embodiment, as shown in FIGs. 1, 5 and 7, the shade fabric 16 serves to absorb much of or substantially all of the direct solar radiation 42 from the orchard, while reflecting much of or substantially all of the direct solar radiation 42 from the orchard. Most preferably, the shade fabric serves to absorb approximately 90% or more of the direct solar radiation from the orchard, while reflecting approximately 10% or less of the direct solar radiation from the orchard. For the preferred embodiments, the substantially low reflectivity of shade fabric is necessary in order to substantially avoid reflecting part of the blocked direct solar radiation back onto the plants 12 that are located on the sun 40 side of each vertical shade structure 15.Because the shade fabric 16 is substantially nonreflective and has a large surface area, it disperses most of the absorbed heat generated from direct solar radiation 42 during the day, and then at night rapidly radiates any residual heat vertically up out of the commercial planting 11.The most preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10 also includes the ability to retract shade fabric 16 to stop creating shade for dormancy control, as shown in FIGs 2, 3, 4, and 6. Preferably, in order to retract shade fabric 16 the lower support cable attachments 26 on vertical supports 18 are opened or removed, and lower support cable 24 is used to lift shade fabric 16 to approximately the same height as upper support cable 20. Then, upper support cable 20, shade fabric 16, and lower support cable 24 are all temporarily bound together with shade fabric gathering tie 28 during the time that shade fabric 16 is retracted.The plant dormancy control system 10 has been installed in cherry orchards to test the degree of plant dormancy control that can be achieved. In a test installation, the use of vertical shade structure 15 was evaluated in terms of controlling cherry bud temperatures during the cherry tree dormancy period, with a maximum ambient temperature of 25 °C during the dormancy period, on typical sunny days. This data was collected between the hours of 10am to 4pm. The results of that experiment are set forth in Table 1 below: Table 1Further experiments were performed using control trees, vertical shade structure 15 (“VS” in Table 2 below), evaporative cooling (“EC” in Table 2 below), and various chemical / hormone sprays. The results of those experiments are set forth in Table 2 below:Table 2The experimental results set forth in Table 2 demonstrate the relative ineffectiveness of the current dormancy control systems using chemical / hormone sprays, or sprays coupled with evaporative cooling. Using the current dormancy control systems, the best result was approximately 5 metric tons of cherries per hectare.The experimental results set forth in Table 2 also demonstrate the surprising effectiveness of incorporating the use of vertical shade structures 15 with either evaporative cooling, or chemical / hormone sprays, or both. The addition of vertical shade structures 15 resulted in a cherry crop yield of between 15 and 30 metric tons per hectare– an improvement of at least 300% to 600% in crop yield. These results were entirely unexpected.It was found that by absorbing the solar radiation from 550nm to 850nm in wavelength, the plant dormancy control system 10 prevented that range of radiation from striking the plant and activating the phytochromes of the plant, and apparently a high chill accumulation was induced resulting in a huge crop increase, even in the absence of temperature regimes that are commonly thought to be the only regulator of chill accumulation. It is observed that the incidental reduction in temperature on the buds of the plants had only a small secondary effect on increasing the level of dormancy.In a preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are cherry trees to provide adequate dormancy in locations where there are not sufficient natural chilling units available. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system is used to solve the problem presented by planting a low chill cherry variety in a warm location that does not naturally have adequate chilling units.In an alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are low chill cherry trees to induce early dormancy in a warm location before the natural climatic conditions would have naturally induced a dormant condition in the cherry trees. Because of the low minimum chilling units required by low chill cherry varieties, inducing early dormancy of those cherry trees in a warm location using the plant dormancy control system would result in cherries being available for harvest much earlier than the same variety of low chill cherries grown in the same location under natural conditions. In this preferred embodiment, the dormancy requirements for those cherry trees would be met much earlier than under natural conditions without the use of the plant dormancy control system 10. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system is used to advance the harvest date of cherries, while still achieving adequate dormancy and thus maintaining commercial quantities and quality for the harvested cherries.In another alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are high chill cherry trees to extend dormancy in a cold location for longer than the natural climatic conditions would have naturally have maintained dormancy. Because high chill cherry varieties can tolerate higher numbers of chilling units, it is possible to extend dormancy of those cherry trees in a cold location using the plant dormancy control system in order to avoid the dangers of spring frost and to create cherry harvest dates much later than for the same variety of high chill cherries grown in the same location under natural conditions. In this preferred embodiment, the dormancy requirements for those cherry trees would be extended much longer than under natural conditions without the use of the plant dormancy control system 10. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system is used to delay both the bloom date and harvest date of cherry trees, thus protecting the cherry trees from the dangers of spring frost and still maintaining commercial quantities and quality for the harvested cherries.In another alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are blueberry bushes to provide adequate dormancy in locations where there are not sufficient natural chilling units available. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system is used to solve the problem presented by planting a low chill blueberry variety in a warm location that does not naturally have adequate chilling units.In another alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are low chill blueberry bushes to induce early dormancy in a warm location before the natural climatic conditions would have naturally induced a dormant condition in the blueberry bushes. Because of the low minimum chilling units required by low chill blueberry varieties, inducing early dormancy of those blueberry bushes in a warm location using the plant dormancy control system would result in blueberries being available for harvest much earlier than the same variety of low chill blueberries grown in the same location under natural conditions. In this preferred embodiment, the dormancy requirements for those blueberry bushes would be met much earlier than under natural conditions without the use of the plant dormancy control system 10. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system is used to advance the harvest date of blueberries, while still achieving adequate dormancy and thus maintaining commercial quantities and quality for the harvested blueberries.In another alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are high chill blueberry bushes to extend dormancy in a cold location for longer than the natural climatic conditions would have naturally have maintained dormancy. Because high chill blueberry varieties can tolerate higher numbers of chilling units, it is possible to extend dormancy of those blueberry trees in a cold location using the plant dormancy control system in order to avoid the dangers of spring frost and to create blueberry harvest dates much later than for the same variety of high chill blueberries grown in the same location under natural conditions. In this preferred embodiment, the dormancy requirements for those blueberry bushes would be extended much longer than under natural conditions without the use of the plant dormancy control system. In this preferred embodiment, the plant dormancy control system 10 is used to delay the bloom date and harvest date of blueberry bushes, thus protecting the cherry trees from the dangers of spring frost and still maintaining commercial quantities and quality for the harvested blueberries.In another alternative preferred embodiment of the plant dormancy control system 10, vertical shade structures 15 can be installed in commercial plantings 11 of plants 12 that are no- chill ever-bearing blueberry bushes to induce dormancy in a warm location for the purpose of concentrating the harvest of blueberries into a harvest time frame that is only a several months long, instead of the normal continuous harvest that continues throughout the entire year under natural conditions. While no-chill ever-bearing blueberry varieties do not have any minimum chill requirements, it is possible to use the plant dormancy control system 10 to put those no-chill ever-bearing blueberry varieties into a dormant or semi-dormant state for a period of time, even when natural conditions would not induce a dormant or semi-dormant state. After a sufficient period of time in a dormant or semi-dormant condition, the shade fabric 16 is retracted, and the blueberry plants are allowed to bloom. Because there has been an induced state of dormancy or semi-dormancy, these no-chill ever-bearing blueberry varieties bloom heavily and produce a large number of blueberries over a period of several months. The no-chill ever-bearing blueberry varieties subjected to an induced dormant or semi-dormant state thus have their harvest window concentrated into a relatively short period of time, and that period of time can start whenever desired by the grower depending on when the plant dormancy control system 10 is deployed in the commercial planting 11.All of the preferred embodiments for plant dormancy control system 10 that are disclosed herein can be used alternatively with any variety of fruit tree, nut tree, or perennial berry bushes that requires dormancy, or that will tolerate extended or induced dormancy. As noted above, all varieties of stone fruit varieties, pome fruit varieties, nut varieties, and many perennial berry varieties require dormancy periods and each have their own specific minimum chilling requirements. Additionally, there are no-chill ever-bearing varieties of plants that will nevertheless tolerate an induced dormant or semi-dormant period of time for the purpose of concentrating the harvest time period for those varieties.The term“substantially,”“approximately,” and“approximate” are employed herein throughout, including this detailed description and the attached claims, with the understanding that these terms denote a level of exactness as typical for the skill and precision in the generally applicable field of technology.In compliance with the statutes, the invention has been described in language more or less specific as to structural features and method steps. While this invention is susceptible to embodiments in different forms, the specification illustrates preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the invention, and the disclosure is not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. Those with ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments and variations of the invention are possible, which employ the same inventive concepts as described above. Therefore, the invention is not to be limited except by the following claims, as appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims

CLAIMS The following is claimed:

1. A plant dormancy control system, as herein described in the attached specification and drawings.

2. The plant dormancy control system of claim 1, wherein the plant dormancy control system serves a commercial planting of fruit trees, nut trees, or perennial berry bushes.

3. A method of a plant dormancy control system, as herein described in the attached specification and drawings.