On completion of this module students should be able to;
1. Practical management skills for fruit crop production;
2. Physiological background to growing and storing commercial fruit crops;
3. Control of rootstock and shoot growth, flower initiation and fruiting;
4. Measurement of quality parameters in fruits;
5. Techniques that facilitate manipulation of plant physiology;
6. Mechanisation and precision horticulture practices in fruit crop production;
7. Manipulation and control of storage atmospheres and fruits stored therein;
8. Novel horticultural business opportunities.

This module explores the scientific and technological basis of temperate fruit crop production. Lecture material discusses tree, shrub and berry fruits; orchard management; pruning; grafting; mineral nutrition; plant reproduction; cultivar and rootstock selection; crop maturity; and pest and disease management. Postharvest physiology covers handling and transportation of fresh produce; refrigerated and controlled atmosphere storage; ethylene inhibition; and physiological storage disorders. Tropical fruit crops are introduced. Practical and laboratory sessions include apple cultivar identification; grafting; dormant pruning; starch, sugar and acid content of fruit; fruit juice extraction; and pest monitoring, trapping and identification. Students will be required to produce individual practical and laboratory reports. Students will be taken on two industry site visits and will be required to produce individual reports detailing their observations and provide a critique of the business. Students will be randomly assigned to groups for scenario-based learning projects on developing a new horticultural enterprise based around fruit or fruit waste, from concept to end of first year of business, covering product development, marketing and finance. Each group will be required to prepare a poster of their project that they will jointly present and defend under questioning from fellow students and academic staff in a mini conference setting. An individual personal reflective learning journal documenting their learning during the group project will be required. The module will culminate in a final examination.

Not applicable to this module.

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

Not yet recorded.