Modeling and Simulation of Fruit Setting Patterns of the Peach Shoot

The fruit setting patterns (fruit number per node and arrangement within the node) along the individual headed fruit-bearing shoot of 10-year-old peach tree (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) were studied over two successive years (2005-2006) in Beijing, China. The headed fruit-bearing shoot, which described as a succession of nodes which produced fruit, is modeled by a Markov chain. This model includes the following states (fruit setting types), state 2 represents double fruits on bearer node; state 1 represents single fruit on bearer node; state 0 represents nothing on bearer node. In fruit-bearing shoot, the setting of fruit arrangement follows a constant pattern: fruit production was significantly higher in the mesotonic zone of the shoot and lower in the basal and apical zone. The results indicate that the final pattern of fruit arrangement is a direct result of heading activity. In addition, three-dimensional representations of the fruit setting pattern were reconstructed using AMAPsim software. The visual comparison between 3D reconstructions and photographs generates a natural feedback of the pruning measurements, at the shoot scale.