Dept of Primary industries and Regional Development

Fresh Thoughts

AUTUMN
2026

Horticulture and Irrigated Agriculture

Welcome

Welcome to the autumn issue of Fresh Thoughts, sharing the latest insights and on-ground updates from across WA horticulture and irrigated agriculture.

The beginning of 2026 has been a season shaped by variable conditions across the state, with some regions experiencing more challenging weather than others. In particular, the effects of Cyclone Narelle are still being assessed and recovery plans are underway.
At the same time, ongoing input cost pressures, including fuel and fertiliser, continue to influence on-farm decisions. Together, these factors highlight the importance of timely, locally relevant information to support growers through the season.

Applied research in action

Digital phenotyping for better efficiency

Phenotyping, measuring observable traits such as bud break, flowering, fruit load, size, shape, colour, and maturity, has always been a critical step in fruit breeding at the orchard level. However, traditional phenotyping creates major bottlenecks when used across large numbers of varieties, over multiple years, and with repeated measurements. These challenges include speed, accuracy, throughput, traceability, long-term data storage, and readiness for future analysis.

Modern phenotyping addresses these limitations by using tools such as drones and imaging technologies, combined with software, often powered by AI, that can automatically analyse images to measure plant growth and fruit production.

Through the five-year Hort Innovation–funded project (AS23003), Dr Sultan Mia and his team are testing these tools to better link phenotype with genotype (the genetic makeup of a plant). This will improve selection efficiency for the Australian National Apple Breeding Program (ANABP). The project is trialling a streamlined workflow in which field and laboratory data are collected digitally using handheld devices (phones and tablets) and automated equipment.

These tools were customised to feed digital data into phenotyping apps (FieldBook), which is connected to a centralised breeding data management system. This database system can process several data types including numerical, categorical, text, images, geo coordinates, breeding background, weather and molecular data. Historical breeding data sets and sequencing data can also be integrated into this system using an appropriate template.

Last year, DPIRD collected the phenology data (flowering time, bud break) of ANABP parental accessions following this approach and this year fruit maturity data (size, shape, weight, colour, firmness, sugar, and acidity) are being recorded as the apple harvest season is progressing.

For future readiness, we are collaborating with the Computer and Robotics team of the Queensland University of Technology and hope to include computer vision and an artificial intelligence agent in this system to facilitate automation and further high-throughput.

Figure 1: Field data collection using mobile devices and apps.

Overview of centralised data management system

Figure 2: Overview of the centralised data management system.

Shaping the orchards of the future

The WA Narrow Orchard Systems (NOS) trial in Manjimup is part of a national Hort Innovation project rethinking how orchards are designed for the future.
The project is about building a complete orchard system that lifts productivity, eases labour pressure and sets growers up for long-term success in a changing climate. This includes:

the right variety and rootstock combinations
smarter tree training systems (like 2D multi-leader ‘fruiting walls’)
orchard design and spacing to maximise light, airflow and efficiency
how well new orchard technologies, including mechanisation of spraying, pruning and sorting, perform in narrow systems.

The trial in Manjimup is growing 3 DPIRD bred apple cultivars (‘ANABP 01’, ‘ANABP 09’, ‘ANABP 14’) on 3 different vigour controlling rootstocks — Geneva^® CG 202 (semi-dwarfing) and M26 and M9 Nic^® 29(dwarfing). The trees are on 3 2D multileader narrow orchard systems (single cordon, double crossover cordon and standard double cordon). The orchard has been established at the Manjimup Horticultural Research Facility, with 2 m tree spacing and 2.5 m row spacing.

What’s working so far?

One of the biggest factors in early tree growth has been the choice of rootstock.

Trees grown on the more vigorous (CG) 202 rootstock are performing the strongest, with some already reaching target growth in their first year.
M26 rootstock is showing moderate growth.
M9 Nic^® 29 is the slowest growing of the 3.

These differences are important because faster early growth helps fill the canopy sooner, which can lead to earlier – though sometimes less consistent – production and potentially higher maintenance requirements.

In terms of vigour and fruiting wood development, the responses seen so far are in line with expectations and largely driven by rootstock rather than cultivar. For example, CG 202 was expected to be more vigorous than the other rootstocks, while M9 Nic® 29 is showing greater precocity, encouraging earlier fruiting at the expense of vigour.

Branch thickness, however, is showing a different pattern. Early observations suggest a cultivar-driven response, regardless of rootstock. ANABP 01 tends to produce thicker branches, which can make them more difficult to bend and position within the system compared to ANABP 09 and ANABP 14. This was not expected and may have implications for training efficiency.

As the trial is still in the canopy filling phase, the influence of cultivar × rootstock combinations on flowering window, cropping patterns, harvest timing, yield and return bloom is unknown. These factors will become clearer as the orchard moves into full production.

How are the trees being trained?

The system being tested trains trees into a 2D ‘fruiting wall’, designed to improve light, airflow and efficiency. In year one, trees were trained into 2 horizontal branches (called cordons). Now in year 2, the focus has shifted to building vertical growth off those branches.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Growers select and support vertical shoots growing from each horizontal cordon.
Each tree is being shaped to have 8 vertical shoots (4 on each side).
Extra shoots, flowers and early fruit are removed to direct energy into growth.
Bamboo canes and ties are used to guide and space the leaders evenly.

This careful training helps create a uniform, productive canopy that’s easier to manage and harvest.

What are we seeing in year 2?

Growth continues to vary depending on the rootstock:

Trees on CG 202 are again leading the way, with strong vertical shoot growth.
These trees are expected to fully fill their canopy space by year 3.
Some are already producing side shoots that could form future fruiting sites.

To support this, researchers are pruning back smaller side shoots to encourage strong fruiting structures that can hold crops without breaking.

Pictorial representation of 2^nd year tree training setup
in NOS trial site at Manjimup Research Institute

Progress of apples trees in Narrow Orchard

Minimising competition to enable strong terminal shoot growth by removing competing shoots and buds in spring (a and b) and an example of heading cut to remove a weak terminal bud in winter (c) to stimulate a stronger lateral bud to dominate.

What’s next?

Researchers will keep tracking growth through the season to fine-tune fruiting strategies and compare systems, as well as trialling tech assisted orchard management.
This work is helping WA growers build more efficient, productive and climate-ready orchards. Although our part of the project in WA concentrates on apples, this system can be adapted to other crops, such as cherries, plums, apricots, and even some tropical species, and may have far reaching benefits for the horticulture industry.
To see this NOS in person register for our upcoming field day (details in Field days section on this newsletter).

Partner Spotlight: Hort Innovation

Behind many of the projects shaping WA horticulture right now is a key partnership between government, industry, universities and research funding organisations.
As the grower-owned R&D corporation for horticulture industries, Hort Innovation connects levy funds with real-world outcomes and turns industry investment into practical tools, systems and insights growers can use on farm.

Why this partnership matters

For WA growers, this partnership ensures local challenges are backed by national investment, and that WA conditions are part of the solution.
It means national funding supporting local priorities, access to leading research and innovation, strong focus on adoption, and real-world outcomes.
Delivered in partnership with DPIRD, these projects bring scale and consistency while staying grounded in WA conditions.

What’s happening on the ground in WA?

DPIRD and Hort Innovation are currently collaborating on a range of projects and investment areas delivering practical outcomes for growers:

Narrow Orchard Systems for Future Climates
A national apple industry project with a WA trial site in Manjimup, testing high-density, 2D multi-leader systems to improve efficiency, productivity and climate resilience.
Tree crop varietal and rootstock evaluation (including apple, pear and avocado)
Assessing and improving access to planting material suited to WA conditions, supporting better orchard performance and long-term productivity.
Pollination research and alternative pollinators
Work in WA exploring the role of native flies as supplementary pollinators in crops like avocado, helping strengthen pollination reliability and reduce reliance on honey bees.
Pest and disease preparedness and management
Supporting surveillance, diagnostics and practical responses to current and emerging biosecurity risks relevant to WA industries.
Soil health and nutrient management
Improving soil function, input efficiency and long-term sustainability across horticultural systems.
Data and decision-support tools for growers
Turning research into practical tools that support day-to-day decision-making on farm.
Maximising carrot pack-out
Water and nutrient recycling

(Project portfolios evolve, but all share a common goal: practical, adoptable outcomes for industry.)

The bigger picture

This partnership is about more than individual projects, it’s about making sure WA growers are connected to the best thinking nationally, while still testing and proving what works locally.

It allows us to:

leverage national investment for WA benefit
trial innovations under local conditions
share knowledge across regions and industries
accelerate adoption of proven practices.

Why it matters

Strong partnerships help facilitate the great research our teams do and mean stronger outcomes and a more productive, resilient future for WA horticulture.

Biosecurity

Events & field days

Apples for the future: Narrow Orchard Systems and AgTech

Take a deep dive into the future of orchard management in narrow orchard systems! This field day will focus on second year tree training activities related to narrow orchard trial in WA, along with online updates from national NOS team as well as the display of the first of its kind electric orchard management platform - 'Frucotec'. Join us for a look at how these innovations are shaping the future of high-density, precision-managed apple orchards, making them more sustainable, efficient, and profitable.

Event date: May 20, 2026 (1 pm to 4 pm)
Please register for the event by Tuesday 19 May.

Registration link

If you register but can no longer attend, please inform us as soon as possible so we can adjust attendance requirements.

For more information contact Asad Ullah - asad.ullah@dpird.wa.gov.au
Phone: 0476 015 898

Agenda:

Brief presentations on latest updates from national NOS teams from AgVic, SARDI SA and DPIRD
Field walk in NOS trial site at Manjimup Horticulture Research Facility
Demonstration of Frucotec orchard management platform

The 11^th International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops

The 11^th ISHS International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops was held at the Tatura SmartFarm in Victoria from 18 to 23 of January 2026. DPIRD research scientists Asad Ullah and Declan McCauley travelled from Manjimup to attend this conference and learn new research directions, technologies, and gain an understanding on where the future of irrigation lies.

Research themes

Over 5 days, numerous presentations and field tours to commercial and research sites, explored the conference’s main theme of plant ecophysiology in relation to its environment and how it determines crop water requirements.

Most research presented investigated assessing crop water requirements under changing climate conditions and addressing challenges related to irrigation scheduling through traditional and/or cutting edge technologies. Studies on 31 different crops were presented, including almond, amaranth, apple, apricot, asparagus, avocado, banana, blueberry, cabbage, cherry, coffee, fig, grapevine, hazelnut, kiwifruit, lemon, lettuce, longan, mango, nectarine, olive, peach, pear, persimmon, plum, potato, strawberry, tomato and zucchini.

One of the most important aspects of irrigation is knowing when to irrigate, and how much. Normally this is referred to as ‘scheduling irrigation’ and is done in 3 different ways:

evapotranspiration or atmospheric based methods
soil balance methods (using soil probes)
plant based methods.

Evapotranspiration and soil balance methods

Much of the research presented made use of evapotranspiration-based scheduling, usually to quantify their treatments, with soil probes and plant sensors being used for gathering additional data. One review of research from 43 countries noted that most irrigation is still done with either evapotranspiration or soil probes. Soil probes and evapotranspiration are very well understood, simple and reliable methods for scheduling irrigation, and remain the dominant means for scheduling irrigation.
Research and technologies presented included:

Supporting further development of evapotranspiration and soil-based irrigation.
‘Heat flux’ evapotranspiration sensors or soil probes based on unique technologies.
Finetuning soil water content values for some crops.
Using remote sensing or satellites to measure actual evapotranspiration.

CropX actual evapotranspiration (Eta) sensor installed at the Tatura SmartFarm. The Eta sensor uses a small thermistor installed in the wire 'orb' to measure heat exchange over the orchard. The heat exchange is calculated into actual evapotranspiration for the orchard. The wire 'orb' is to stop birds from attempting to collect the thermistor for nesting material!

Plant-based irrigation

Though research was presented, plant-based irrigation has some way to go before competing with evapotranspiration and soil probes. This method, using sap flow sensors, micro tensiometers and plant osmotic potential measurements, has considerable untapped potential as an irrigation scheduling tool. Plant sensor-based irrigation scheduling removes much of the guess work from irrigation scheduling, providing a more precise picture of plant performance over time. However, current plant-based sensors are complex in operation, lack durability and require constant adjustment, repositioning and/or calibration. This was highlighted as a major obstacle in adoption of plant-based sensors under commercial settings for irrigation decisions.

Almond case study

In a plant-based irrigation scheduling study from Spain, almonds were manipulated to have different crop loads with sap flow sensors used to determine irrigation requirements of the different crop load treatments. The treatments and sap flow derived irrigation resulted in the almonds with the lowest crop load using 46% less water than the almonds with the highest crop load. The sap flow sensor demonstrated its value in efficiently irrigating a crop under conditions of varying crop load, which is common in every crop susceptible to biennial bearing.

AI assisted decision making

Based on what the local weather station or soil probes in the crop are telling the grower, decision making is required. An AI system named SMARTER was applied to a golden kiwifruit orchard in Italy over 2 seasons. The inputs for the AI were standard soil probes (capacitance type) with all irrigation decisions being made by the AI. When compared to the standard irrigation decisions, the AI had negligible effect on yield (slight increase in second year) but did improve the fruit quality. Thus, AI systems may be a promising technology for automating irrigation decisions, whilst still using the standard, reliable technologies available today.

Reduction in irrigation

There was a general trend from most of the presentations that for most crops, irrigation could always be reduced. There were many examples of crop factors for evapotranspiration-based scheduling being reduced by close to half without any yield penalty. A survey of pear growers in the Goulburn Valley showed that most growers were overirrigating compared to actual evapotranspiration demand, though some did underirrigate. Another survey from the Murray River area showed substantial variation in irrigation practices, with a lot of room to adjust water consumption downwards.

Field tour

The field tour included a humungous almond orchard developed and managed by GO.Farm, a corporate entity developing former dairy land and water licenses in the eastern Murray into almond farms. Tomatoes and wheat are also grown as short cash crops to build capital and employee skills before planting out the almonds.

One notable irrigation practice they employed was to use single shifts across their entire orchards, watering 300 hectares of almonds in one go with drip irrigation. The drippers have a very low flow rate so to supply 12 mm of irrigation they run the pumps for 18 hours! While the pumping costs at face value may seem unacceptable, the value of the long irrigation run times is that the penetration and spread of water into the soil is maximised. Peer reviewed research has shown that ultra-low dripper applications increase soil hydraulic conductivity, improving water availability for crops. Although this could substantially increase water use efficiency, a downside could be scarce water quality either due to excessive salinity or metal content. This could result in drippers getting blocked too often and/or reducing their emission volume, affecting the whole irrigation scheduling efficiency.

Conclusion

By the end of the symposium our brains were filled to overflowing with the technologies, research and trends facing the field of irrigation. Plant-based irrigation scheduling is the focus of a substantial amount of research, with evapotranspiration and soil-based irrigation scheduling still dominating irrigation industries due to their practicality and reliability. The future of irrigation scheduling will no doubt inevitably be plant-based due to the greater insights into plant performance. AI appeared in the symposium, most notably as a decision-making tool for irrigation. Finally, there may be practical applications of using low flow rate irrigation to minimise irrigation shifts across identical blocks and maximise soil water availability to crops.

WA Grower Magazine

To stay up to date with industry news, including more information on the work our DPIRD teams are doing, we highly recommend WA Grower magazine.