Modern Strategies for Sustainable Orchard Crop Management: Enhancing Yield, Fruit Quality and Disease Resistance

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural and Floricultural Crops".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 515

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
Interests: grapevine; almond; agrobiodiversity; clonal selection; intracultivar variability; must composition and fruit quality; water stress; soil management; canopy management

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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39/a, Sassari, Italy
Interests: agrometeorology; climate change; fruit quality; Olea europea L.; plant physiology; phenology; soil management; tree crops

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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39/a, Sassari, Italy
Interests: agrobiodiversity; olive; pomegranate; plant physiology; crop management; tree crops; agrometeorology; fruit quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of climate change and a continuously increasing global population, agriculture—and therefore fruit cultivation—is faced with new and important challenges.

The increasing occurrence of extreme meteorological events, heatwaves, and drought periods, make innovative agronomical practices aimed at improving plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses necessary. At the same time, modern agriculture has a key role in environmental protection. In this regard, several agronomical practices related to, for instance, soil management or the reuse of waste products as amendments and fertilizers have shown to improve soil fertility, environmental biodiversity, and plant health.

Agronomic management has a significant impact on perennial fruit crops, influencing physiological processes, the frequency of diseases and pests, yield, and the qualitative composition of the derived products. The choice of sustainable practices substantially affects orchard outcomes in terms of production and quality itself. Therefore, it is essential to improve our knowledge about the effects of such practices.

The aim of the present Special Issue is to collate studies that evaluate the suitability of applying environmentally sustainable agronomical practices in orchard crops in terms of production yield and fruit quality. We invite work on the following topics: soil management, irrigation, fertilization, pest control, training systems, harvesting techniques, and varietal selection.

Dr. Luca Mercenaro
Dr. Pierfrancesco Deiana
Dr. Mario Santona
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soil management
  • irrigation
  • fertilization
  • pest control
  • training systems
  • harvesting techniques
  • varietal selection

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 1741 KB  
Article
Towards Site-Specific Management: UAV- and Ground-Based Assessment of Intra-Field Variability in SHD Almond Orchards
by Mauro Lo Cascio, Pierfrancesco Deiana, Alessandro Deidda, Costantino Sirca, Giovanni Nieddu, Mario Santona, Donatella Spano, Filippo Gambella and Luca Mercenaro
Agronomy 2025, 15(9), 2241; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15092241 - 22 Sep 2025
Viewed by 110
Abstract
Through highly detailed data acquisition, a precision agriculture approach leads to the optimization of inputs, improving, for instance, water and nutrient use efficiency. High-resolution vigor mapping in perennial orchards provides the spatial detail required to achieve such targeted management. This exploratory case study [...] Read more.
Through highly detailed data acquisition, a precision agriculture approach leads to the optimization of inputs, improving, for instance, water and nutrient use efficiency. High-resolution vigor mapping in perennial orchards provides the spatial detail required to achieve such targeted management. This exploratory case study characterizes the spatial variability of vegetative vigor in a young SHD almond orchard in southern Sardinia by integrating high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) mapping with two consecutive seasons of ground measurements; the NDVI raster was subsequently used to delineate three distinct vigor zones. The NDVI was selected as a reference index because of its well-assessed performance in field-variability studies. Field measurements, during the kernel-filling period, included physiological assessments (stem water potential (Ψstem), SPAD, photosynthetic rates), morphological evaluations, soil properties, yield, and quality analyses. High vigor zones exhibited better physiological conditions (Ψstem = −1.60 MPa in 2023, SPAD = 38.77 in 2022), and greater photosynthetic rates (15.31 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 in 2023), alongside more favorable soil conditions. Medium vigor zones showed intermediate characteristics, and balanced soil textures, producing a higher number of smaller almonds. Low vigor zones exhibited the poorest performance, including the most negative water status (Ψstem of −1.94 MPa in 2023), lower SPAD values (30.67 in 2023), and coarse-textured soils, leading to reduced yields. By combining UAV-based NDVI mapping with ground measurements, these results highlight the value of precision agriculture in intra-field variability identification, providing a basis for future studies that will test site-specific management strategies in SHD orchards. Full article
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