First California dataset collected! From Sambado & Son Cherry Orchard in Linden, CA
The California cherry market is all about timing.
California cherries are the first fresh U.S. cherries to market, beating cooler places like Washington. Thus, cherry growers are very concerned about managing water, carbon, and temperature in a rapidly changing climate. In partnership with UC Davis biometeorologist specialist, Dr. Kosana Suvocarev, orchard specialist, Dr. Giulia Marino, and UC Cooperative Extension orchard systems advisors, Dr. Kari Arnold (Stanislaus County) and Dr. Mohamed Nouri (San Joaquin County), we conducted an aerial mission to collect multiband imagery over two on-farm sites with different planting densities that each have an Eddy Covariance tower set up to directly measure evapotranspiration at a large-scale footprint.
This is the first California dataset collected for the Conservation Irrigation Lab!
Our drone-based remote sensing imagery will be used to map high-resolution ET as a precision check on the larger scale measurements. The plan is to use these measurements to develop new cherry irrigation guidelines for CA growers.
The CA commercial apple harvest, processing, and packing was also underway at Sambado’s Prima Fruta packing plant, and we got the VIP tour reserved for UC Cooperative Extension scientists! The packing plant is vast with some very cool tech! For example, we learned that the reason you do not find bad cores in commercial apples is because they pass through an infrared scanner that can detect defects. We also learned that some old adages are true--one bad apple can spoil the bunch!
Dr. Kari Arnold recommended that it is important for scientists focused on agricultural management to see this part of the production process in order to understand the specific needs and challenges of commercial growers.
Cherry team (not including Dr. Nouri who is taking the photo)
Apple processing for the fresh market