Tree fruits like cherries are a particularly challenging crop since there is only have one harvest per year but is has a 52 week production cycle. Each season brings different risks to the yield and quality of the fruit at harvest time.
To develop the knowledge of how to influence the trees to produce more fruit that is firm earlier or later, Cravo started to work with Dr. Greg Lang from Michigan State University back in 2012.
Fast forward over 12 years and between what we learned with Dr. Lang and from commercial users of motorized and manual covers, we have developed the best practices, key learnings and mistakes to avoid when using automatic retractable roof covers to:
increase chill hours,
advance or delay flowering,
improve pollination
help reduce the chance of abortion
prevent soft fruit
advance the harvest up to 3 weeks
prevent losses from rain, hail, sunburn, frost
extend the hours in the day that the fruit can be harvested
reduce the chance of double fruiting
reduce water usage post harvest
These key learning can apply to other high value tree fruits beyond cherries.
As with every crop, it all comes down to the return on investment. Fortunately we have also developed ROI calculators which can help forecast profitability and return on investment based on different scenarios.
