WIPO

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Patent sought for orchard climate control system

Inventors Anibal Schurter and John Warmerdam say their orchard climate control system is especially useful for growing kiwifruit and similarly delicate crops.

Kiwifruit can be grown in most moderate temperature marine type climates with adequate summer heat but growing them away from coastal environments can be challenging. Indeed, efforts to grow some of the most popular varieties of kiwifruit in warmer and drier climates have failed, almost universally, says a patent application recently published by the Word Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Thus comes the invention of a humidity and temperature control system for use in the outdoor cultivation of kiwifruit that features an angled sunshade and various fogging type nozzles.

Inventors Anibal Schurter and John Warmerdam say in the application that their climate control system provides for the efficient and controlled introduction of water vapor into an outdoor orchard. “The system is especially useful when employed in the cultivation of kiwifruit and similarly delicate crops, and serves to substantially reduce stresses from heat and low humidity or arid growing conditions.”

“The coupling of shade control and climate control in an outdoor orchard setting is a development of critical importance to the viable cultivation of delicate, humidity and temperature sensitive fruits, such as the kiwifruit,” they say in the application. They also mention its suitability for other fruit susceptible to damage or stress from temperature and humidity variance outside its nominal growing conditions, such as many varieties of apples and pome fruits in general, and most varieties of cherries and stone fruits.

source: WO2015179566) ORCHARD CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM

In a preferred embodiment of the orchard climate control system, as employed in a kiwifruit orchard and shown in Figure 1, kiwifruit vines are planted in a row and supported on a trellis with laterals (as seen in figure 2) which train and support the kiwifruit vines. The trellis helps support the shade structure, the water supply pipe and foggers, the application says.

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Refining the art of spiralizing veggies and fruit

Turning vegetables into noodles has been one of the top food trends this year in western countries and and sales of spiralizers soared.

Turning vegetables into noodles has been one of the top food trends this year and sales of spiralizers soared.

That spiralizing spin is tipped to continue into the new year and tapping into it is this device for spirally cutting hard to cut material, such as fruit and vegetables.

German kitchen tools company GEFU Küchenboss GmbH & Co. KG is named as the applicant in a patent application for the invention recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Drawings from patent application

The device was designed with the aim of improving on existing spiralizers of cut-resistant material to minimise the remnant left in the apparatus. It can easily turn radish, carrots, beets, zucchini and so on into spiral strips.

Expect to hear more about spiralizing techniques and meal applications in 2016!

(Unrelated) image of zucchini noodles: by Tony Webster from San Francisco, California (Zucchini Noodles (Spiral Slicer)) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Whirlpool seeks patent for crisper said to keep fruit, veg fresher

Whirlpool Corporation says it has developed a crisper which controls ripening so as to extend the shelf-life of the fruit and vegetables in it. The invention hinges on the removal of ethylene, a chemical released by many fruits and some vegetables that hastens ripening.

Whirlpool Corporation says it has developed a crisper which controls ripening so as to extend the shelf-life of the fruit and vegetables in it.

The invention hinges on the removal of ethylene, a chemical released by many fruits and some vegetables that hastens ripening.

In international patent application documents published by WIPO, the US-based home appliance giant says that typically the special compartments found in fridges for storing fruit and vegetables – crisper drawers – are closed. This means that as the produce ripens, ethylene accumulates in the drawer and accelerates the ripening of surrounding produce, thereby reducing shelf life and freshness.

Whirlpool’s solution is to modify the atmosphere in the drawer via a photocatalytic process that converts ethylene into carbon dioxide and water. The result is not only is the ethylene reduced, the carbon dioxide produced limits the ripening of the produce it surrounds.

The invention achieves this via a crisper with a photo-catalytic element – featuring titanium dioxide TiO2 – and a source of UV light, preferably of the LED type. That’s because ethylene (and other volatile organic compounds) present in the air at low concentrations can be oxidised to carbon dioxide and water when exposed to particles of titanium dioxide irradiated with near UV light.

The lighting would ideally be subject to an on/off algorithm and an infrared gas sensor used to directly control ethylene concentration and indirectly monitor the carbon dioxide content.

Source: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US152767151

Whirlpool said one of the objects of the invention is to be “cost-effective both during the manufacturing process and when functioning during the entire life of the refrigerator.”

It also said that, in general, fruits release more ethylene than vegetables during the natural ripening process and that many vegetables are sensitive to ethylene.

Foods that emit ethylene include: apples, avocados, bananas, pears, peaches, plums, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Vegetables that absorb ethylene include: brassicas, leafy greens, beans, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, peppers and potatoes.

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Chemical agent helps thin stone fruit

Chemicals are used to thin out stone fruit – rather than doing it by hand or machine – under an invention from the UK’s Fine Agrochemicals Ltd.

Chemicals are used to thin out stone fruit – rather than doing it by hand or machine – under an invention from the UK’s Fine Agrochemicals Ltd.

In a patent application document, the company says the need for fruit load control is widely recognised in the stone fruit sector. As the fruit carrying capacity of trees is limited, an increase in the number of fruit – such as in the case of apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries and peaches – is accompanied by reduction in fruit size.

And since small fruit is considered “low quality fruit” in the fresh fruit market, and attracts “very low prices”, it is common practice among fruit growers to reduce the number of fruits per tree by chemical, mechanical and/or hand thinning in order to prevent branch breakage, and to obtain large, high quality fruits, and also because abundant bearing may cause bi-annual bearing, which is disadvantageous in itself, it said.

But the hand thinning of flowers or of fruit require a lot of manpower and is “very expensive”, the company said in the documents published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). And mechanical flower thinning has downsides including the risk of tree damage.

As for the less labour intensive option of chemical thinning, the company said “very few” products are available for stone fruit and only treatment with GA3 (gibberellic acid) is relatively common.

Instead, it proposes use of gibberellin 7 (GA7) for thinning of stone fruit by applying the GA7 as foliar spray within 12 weeks after full bloom, and preferably using the GA7 mixed with GA4.

Suitable stone fruit include peach, apricot, nectarine, plum, cherry and mirabelle but the preferred species are peach and nectarine.

Tests show that with suitable application of GA7, at least a 30% reduction (between 10-70%) in fruit set is achievable, it said.
 

Images:
1: Nectarine branch by Christopher Thomas (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
2: Harrow Beauty peaches at Lyman Orchards by Sage Ross (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons