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Course Duration: 100 hours
Assignments: 8
Exams: 1
COURSE STRUCTURE
There are 8 lessons as follows:
- Introduction to Temperate Fruit Growing
- Deciding What to Grow
- Crop Selection Criteria
- Options of Types of Fruits: Citrus, Berries, Vine Fruits, Pome Fruits, Stone Fruits, Nuts, etc
- The Botany of a Fruit and Fruit Development
- The Flower and Inflorescence
- Types of Fruit: simple, aggregate, multiple
- Modification of Fruits
- How Seed Forms, Buds
- Terminology
- Morphological Changes in Plants
- Establishing an Orchard
- Considerations when Establishing an Orchard
- Site Selection; size, location, climate, water, pest and disease exposure, etc
- Calculating Effective Rainfall
- Drawing an Orchard Plan
- General Cultural Practices
- Understanding Soils
- Physical Soil Characteristics; soil texture, structure, etc
- Chemical Characteristics of Soil; pH, Nutrition
- Soil Water
- Simple Soil Tests
- Dealing with Fruit Tree Problems
- Identifying a Problem
- Pests; chewing insects, sucking insects, other pests, birds
- Diseases; fungal, virus, bacterial
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- Chemical Pest Control
- Non Chemical Pest Control
- Common Environmental Problems
- Staking Plants, Cages and tree guards
- Weed Control
- Nutrition and Plant Feeding
- Pruning Fruit Trees
- Pruning Systems
- Water, Drainage andIrrigation
- Tree Fruits
- Deciduous Fruit Trees
- Winter Chilling Requirements
- Climate Needs
- Choosing Varieties
- Pollination Needs
- Growing Apples
- Apricot
- Cherry
- Fig
- Loquat
- Asian Pear or Nashi
- Olive
- Peach and Nectarine
- Pear, Plum
- Pepino, Pomegranate, Quince, Tree Tomato
- Using Compost
- Vines, Nuts and Berries
- Nut Growing Introduction
- Walnut Culture
- Chestnut, Almond, Macadamia, Pecan, American Hazlenut, Filbert, etc
- Passionfruit Culture
- Chinese Gooseberry
- Grape Cultivation
- Overview of Berry Fruit Growing
- Strawberry Growing
- Raspberry, Cape Gooseberry, Mulberry, Blueberry, Elderberry, Currants, Cranberry, Brambles
- Citrus
- Introduction to Citrus Culture
- Overview of Species
- Temperature Tolerance
- Culture and Planting Citrus
- Citrus Problems and treatments
- Citrus Directory; review of main types
- Cultural Management of a Fruit Plantation or Orchard
- Developing a Maintenance Program
- The Production Plan
- Producing a Flow Chart (Timetable) for a crop
- Marketing Your Produce
- Introduction
- Marketing Options
- Conducting Market Research
- Standards; quality, quantity, cost efficiency
- Sales Price
- Example of Harvest and Post Harvest treatment of a Crop
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
AIMS
- Identify different types of fruit crops, which can be successfully grown in the learner's region.
- Explain the nature of the fruit industry in the learner's region (locality).
- Determine the cultural requirements for different fruit crops.
- Develop a plan for the establishment of an orchard.
- Formulate appropriate methods for marketing specific fruit crops grown in the learner's locality.
- Develop a calendar for cultural management of a fruit plantation, or orchard.
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