Technical note: Support tools for maturity estimation

As production volume has increased in Australia, increased focus has been given to quality, particularly to managing the timing of harvest. A web based support tool was developed for the Australian mango industry that automates the heat sum measurement process for maturity estimation (from a wireless temperature sensor in orchard) and captures data from hand-held in-field sensors to display orchard block statistics and time course information. Flowering events are logged manually, with future potential for machine vision based field assessment. Data from field surveys of fruit dry matter, as assessed by hand-held near infrared spectroscopy, and fruit size, as assessed using a mobile device application based on the device camera, is displayed. Measured rate of increase of dry matter increase allow estimation of harvest date to meet user defined specifications. Orchard blocks are ranked on these criteria to guide the orchard managers’ decision on order of harvest. Additionally, the near infrared technology has been calibrated for assessment of dry matter content of ripening fruit, with use in markets/distribution centres. © 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.