Relation of peel damage in citrus fruit to wind climate in orchard and its control

Peel damage originated by wind is the main abiotic cause of citrus fruit discards for export in Uruguay. Natural windbreaks such as Eucalyptus and Casuarinas have not been effective in reducing it. This research was carried out during three years in a citrus orchard situated in the coastal plain of Uruguay (35° SL). The purpose of this work was to study wind climate inside the orchard, fruit seasonal sensitivity, basal leaf effect on the onset and evolution of peel damage, and the efficiency of artificial windbreaks to reduce fruit discard of ‘Ellendale’ tangor. Average wind velocity in the orchard did not exceed 5 m s⁻¹. First peel scars were evident two weeks after petal fall and damaged fruit percentage importantly increased during the first stage of fruit growth. Low energy vortexes caused almost permanent friction between basal leaves and the developing fruitlets growing in their axil. Removal of the basal leaf decreased significantly wind damaged fruit. Natural wind flow modification through the use of semi-porous artificial windbreak nets (5 cm by 10 cm mesh) modified low energy vortexes and increased significantly the percentage of export quality fruit. We conclude that this type of net is more efficient than natural windbreaks or classical nets to reduce wind damage in citrus fruit.