Abstract
The Hass cultivar is important to the South African avocado industry as it is preferred by consumers, and is late maturing so filling a niche market overseas. Hass yields, although higher than most other cultivars, are still unacceptably low and a high percentage of fruit are too small to fetch good prices. The application of a thick composted filterpress mulch was investigated as an alternative to composted pinebark, as a strategy to help alleviate stress and increase yield and fruit size. In addition, the effect of potassium on the biennial bearing habit and mean yield of trees was investigated. Trees were evaluated over two years (three harvests) for: yield, fruit size, shoot growth, root growth, root zone temperature, root zone water content, leaf nutrient level, stem circumference and canopy diameter. Average fruit mass from mulched trees increased, whilst number of reject (small) fruit decreased, with a less pronounced biennial bearing pattern being evident when compared to controls. Trees mulched with filterpress produced higher yields and fruit size than all other treatments. Application of 5 kg potassium to trees mulched with filterpress showed a reduced yield but improved fruit size. Addition of 5 kg potassium to unmulched trees significantly increased yield and reduced the number of reject (small) fruit by 13%.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Mulching increased average Hass avocado fruit mass relative to controls.
- Taxon
- Avocados
Persea americanat0 - Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- mulched treese0
- Outcome
- Average fruit masse0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average fruit mass from mulched trees increased, whilst number of reject (small) fruit decreased, with a less pronounced biennial bearing pattern being evident when compared to controls.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulching decreased the number of small rejected fruit relative to controls.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- mulched treese0
- Outcome
- number of reject (small) fruite0
- Direction
- decreasede0
- Comparator
- controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average fruit mass from mulched trees increased, whilst number of reject (small) fruit decreased, with a less pronounced biennial bearing pattern being evident when compared to controls.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulching made biennial bearing less pronounced relative to controls.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- mulched treese0
- Outcome
- biennial bearing patterne0
- Direction
- less pronouncede0
- Comparator
- controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average fruit mass from mulched trees increased, whilst number of reject (small) fruit decreased, with a less pronounced biennial bearing pattern being evident when compared to controls.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Filterpress mulch produced higher Hass avocado yield than all other treatments.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- mulched with filterpresse0
- Outcome
- yieldse0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- all other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Trees mulched with filterpress produced higher yields and fruit size than all other treatments.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Filterpress mulch produced larger fruit than all other treatments.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- mulched with filterpresse0
- Outcome
- fruit sizee0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- all other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Trees mulched with filterpress produced higher yields and fruit size than all other treatments.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding 5 kg potassium to filterpress-mulched trees reduced yield.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- 5 kg potassiume0
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Qualifier
- trees mulched with filterpresse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Application of 5 kg potassium to trees mulched with filterpress showed a reduced yield but improved fruit size.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding 5 kg potassium to filterpress-mulched trees improved fruit size.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- 5 kg potassiume0
- Outcome
- fruit sizee0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Qualifier
- trees mulched with filterpresse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Application of 5 kg potassium to trees mulched with filterpress showed a reduced yield but improved fruit size.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding 5 kg potassium to unmulched trees significantly increased yield.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- 5 kg potassiume0
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- unmulched treese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Addition of 5 kg potassium to unmulched trees significantly increased yield and reduced the number of reject (small) fruit by 13%.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding 5 kg potassium to unmulched trees reduced small rejected fruit by 13%.
- Taxon
- AvocadosPersea americanat0
- Material
- Hasst0
- Treatment
- 5 kg potassiume0
- Outcome
- number of reject (small) fruite0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 13%e0
- Qualifier
- unmulched treese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Addition of 5 kg potassium to unmulched trees significantly increased yield and reduced the number of reject (small) fruit by 13%.”
t0“Hass Avocados”
The same questions in other papers
potassium · yield · Persea americana (avocado)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- positive
mulching · yield · Persea americana (avocado)Results agree
4 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
1 paper more in this group
See all 5 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.