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Fruit

Dr Richard Stirzaker

The Scientist’s Garden: reflections on food and water

The time has come for a scientific exposé of the backyard fruit and vegetable garden and, from there, to draw the links to the big NRM issues of our time.

Improving the water use efficiency of horticultural crops

NPIRD project CDH1

The results of this project show that there is considerable scope for improving the water use efficiency of fruit production in Australia. The two year project has sought to test the partial rootzone drying (PRD) irrigation method, originally developed for grapevines, in a range of woody perennial horticultural crops. The technique requires that both wet and dry rootzones are simultaneously created. Results with grapes, citrus and pears have given exciting results. (more)...

Introduction to Open Hydroponics

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation Fact Sheet

Open Hydroponics is an irrigation and nutrition management program aimed at increasing yield and fruit quality of horticulture crops. The fundamental principle of Open Hydroponics is that nutrients are applied continuously by drip irrigation that is operated at very high frequency. Design, installation, operation, monitoring and control are all critical components of Open Hydroponics. Professor Rafael Martinez (University Miguel Hernández, Spain) was the first to introduce the concepts of Open (more)...