Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
6.6
TEMPERATE FRUITS
Temperate-fruit-producing countries are shown in Figure 6.20 on the basis of FAO data
on the world production of apples, apricots, cherries, nectarines, and pears. Most of
these countries occur in the Northern Hemisphere and to a lesser extent in
South America. However, Australia also produces large amounts of temperate fruits.
Other countries producing large amounts of temperate fruits occur in northern and
South Africa and in a limited number of countries in Europe and Asia. Characteristics
of temperate fruits and how they are commonly eaten are given in Table 6.4.
Temperate fruit trees are of moderate height compared to tropical fruit trees. They
are grown in large orchards and in small plantings of two or more trees. It is uncommon
to find single trees without close neighbors. In part this is done because temperate
fruit trees commonly require a pollenizer to produce fruit. This may be another tree
of another variety of the same fruit, which is very common, and this tree is chosen
as the pollinator because it produces large amounts of pollen. Apples are a good
example in that pollen from flowers on the same tree will not pollinate each other,
even on different parts of the same tree; and pollen of the same variety will not pollinate
another tree of the same variety effectively.
Also because of the importance of pollination, honey bees are frequently kept in
hives in orchards. The honey produced is sold to provide additional income to the
fruit farmer.
Pruning is commonly practiced on temperate fruit trees and has several purposes.
In younger trees it is used to produce a stronger tree less likely to break under heavy
fruit production. It also tends to make the trees smaller, thus making spraying and
Figure
6.20.
Map of temperate fruit-producing countries of the world. (Mapped from FAO
data at FAOSTAT at http:
//
faostat.fao.org
/
default.aspx.)
