Winter drought stress can delay flowering, prevent fruit loss in orange crops

Successful mechanical harvesting of perennial fruit crops requires efficient, economical harvesting systems that do not reduce trees' production life or diminish fruit quality. Most of the world's citrus is now harvested manually, but the use of efficient and lower-cost mechanical harvesting techniques is expected to increase in the next few years, especially in the large citrus plantations in Florida and Brazil. The citrus industry is ramping up efforts to extend the harvest season past June, when the following year's crop becomes large enough to be susceptible to mechanical harvesting; discovering techniques that improve late-season harvesting will give growers better tools to minimize damaging impacts on the next year's fruit yield.

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