Microsoft Word - 1murphy.docx CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 58, 2017 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Remigio Berruto, Pietro Catania, Mariangela Vallone Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. ISBN 978-88-95608-52-5; ISSN 2283-9216 Innovative Techniques to Reduce Chilling Injuries in Mango (Mangifera Indica L.) Trees under Mediterranean Climate Vittorio Farinaa, Luigi Tripodoa, Giuseppe Gianguzzi*a, Giuseppe Sortinoa, Diego Giuffrea, Ugo Lo Cicerob, Roberto Candiab, Alfonso Collurab. a Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy b Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy giuseppe.gianguzzi@unipa.it As a tropical tree, mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivated in Mediterranean climate needs protection against low temperatures. The aim of this work is to study the effect of traditional individual protective canopy protection systems in comparison with innovative typologies designed for this experiment on the physiological response of young mango trees during the cold season. We selected 25 four-year-old mango trees cv ‘Glenn’. Trees were divided into five different groups: not covered trees (NC); trees with windbreak protection using a shading net (SN); trees with windbreak protection using non-woven sheets (WB); fully covered trees using non-woven sheets (FC); fully covered trees with non-woven sheets and the addition of a 'heat exchanger' device (FC+). Their canopies were fully covered (FC) and (FC+) or enclosed by a hand-made individual windbreaks (SN and WB). We studied the evolution of temperature inside the canopy and evaluated the threshold of damage on leaves and shoots. We also monitored soil temperature under the trees. Precision self-made data loggers were assembled. A "heat exchanger" was realized for this experiment to try to recover heat from the ground and place it under the canopy of the plants. It was made with a 50 cm U-shaped aluminum pipeline using recycled materials; this was placed horizontally, 50 cm deep in the soil with one of two extremities above the soil and the other within the canopy. NC trees were damaged by cold temperature. More particular, the young shoot was injured by necrosis followed by fungal disease. The same behavior was observed in SN and WB when the canopy was only enclosed by the protection whereas FC tree shoots were intact. Non-woven sheets preserved intact the shoots only in the FC trees, as the canopies were completely covered by a closed space because the leaves and shoots were isolated from the outside. The ‘heat exchanger’ device increased, however minimally, the temperature in the closed space containing the canopy. The use of non-woven sheets, covering completely the canopy, allowed to preserve the shoots for future tree development. 1. Introduction The mango (Mangifera indica L.) is the most important species of the Anacardiaceae family both for its world production and its wide global distribution. In Sicily, this crop is increasingly expanding in conjunction with the economical crisis of the citrus cultivation particularly along the Tyrrhenian coastal areas (Liguori et al., 2017). The climatic conditions prevailing in this area of Sicily, particularly during the cold seasons, differ greatly from those of most mango-growing regions. In fact the presumable average temperatures hover around 17 – 18°C, while the average rainfalls are close to 690.8 mm with 77 rainy days (Duro et al., 1996; Drago, 2005; Gianguzzi et al., 2015). Under the bioclimatic aspect, the station is referred to the upper thermos- Mediterranean lower subhumid bioclimatic belt (Gianguzzi et al., 2015). Hence, the possibility to cultivate mango in this areas is mainly subjected to the effect of temperature. The tree is not able to be cultivated in areas where the average of the coldest month is less than 15°C (Ochse et al., 1972) while the optimum growth temperature is between 24 and 26°C reaching 30 and 33°C for the stages of flowering and fruit development (Purseglove, 1968; Chachko, 1986). Temperatures between 15 and 33°C were found to be excellent for the pollen development (Issarakraisila and Considine, 1994) as well diurnal temperatures of 19°C and 13°C during the night are favourable for a good flower differentiation (Chen et al., 1999), whereas night DOI: 10.3303/CET1758138 Please cite this article as: Farina V., Tripodo L., Gianguzzi G., Sortino G., Giuffre D., Lo Cicero U., Candia R., Collura A., 2017, Innovative techniques to reduce chilling injuries in mango (mangifera indica l.) trees under mediterranean climate, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 58, 823-828 DOI: 10.3303/CET1758138 823 temperatures below 10°C reduced by 50% the viability of the pollen. Fitchett et al. (2014) have shown that temperature is also a decisive factor to increase yield too. Generally the main factors of low temperature resistance are tree size (Carmichael; 1958), vigour (Singh and Singh, 1995) and canopy distance from the ground (Oppenheimer, 1952). Even if some varieties are resistant to -5.6 °C (Hayes, 1945; Jawada, 1962) Campbell et al. (1977) claim that gems damage occur also at 0°C. Hence, the possibility to protect young plants from temperatures below -3.3°C covering them with agave fiber and wood chips (Sturrock, 1951). Over the years, farmers have operated with more or less functional protective intervention, but do not exist, in the literature, studies designed to evaluate their effectiveness. For this purpose, it lends the non-woven fabric, a synthetic material used in agriculture which can be placed directly over the canopy to protect the tree from cold winds. The main advantages of direct coverage are the easy use and the cheap cost for installation (Gregoire, 1990). Primary utilized is in horticulture (Dantas et al., 2013) to protect plants from cold temperature (Jabłońska e Wadas, 2005) increasing the quality (Shijun et al., 2002). As regards the protection of individual fruit by coverage, Junya et al. in 2004 showed that the coverage with white non-woven fabric has given the best results on the mango. Nowadays, very few studies analyzed the possibility of protecting woody plants using the non-woven fabric in the early years of development (Jackson et al., 1986), covered the whole plant, reaching considerable results. Hamouz et al. (2006) report that the air temperature under the protective layer is increased by 2°C. Gimenez et al., (2002) have noted that undercover the temperature was always higher from 1 to 6°C compare to the open. In addition, another strategy would be to use the accumulated heat from the ground. The soil, is generally characterized by high thermal capacity (Hillel, 1998) and, generally, it should be possible to use the soil thermal reserve of more than 40 cm in depth as a source of heat at a temperature that for all purposes of our work we can consider constant. To be able to assess accurately the effects on the plant by the various treatments we used the BBCH scale. The BBCH scale (Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt und Chemische Industrie) is a useful way to standardize the classification of the phenological stages of all species of mono- and dicotyledonous plants. Proposed by Bleiholder et al. (1989) and later in the extended version by Hack et al. (1992), it is based on the "cereal code" (Zadoks et al. 1974). The advantage is in the simplicity and ease of use for annuals, biennials and perennials; also describes both phases: vegetative and reproductive. A considerable effort has been made to study the usefulness of BBCH scale on mango phenology (Hernández et al., 2010). The objective of this work is to make a contribution on the physiological response of Mangifera indica L. plants, in relation to different protection systems (simple and combined) in Mediterranean area climate. We want to study the effect of such systems on the maintenance of the temperature inside the canopy, monitoring the performance of this parameter during the cold months and verifying, then, the phenological evolution and the plant capability to the vegetative growth. Also we want to evaluate the threshold of damage caused by low temperatures on plant foliage. 2. Materials and methods 2.1 Experimental site The trial was carried out in an orchard located at Agostino Collura Farm in Acquedolci, province of Messina (Sicily, Italy; 38°3' N, 14°33' E; 50 m a.s.l.). 2.2 Plant Material We selected 25 uniform 4-years-old mango trees grafted on Gomera 3 rootstock, spacing 4x2 m and trained to a globe shape. Trees were submitted to routinary cultural cares. Perimetric and diagonal windbreaks are on site to reduce harmful wind effects. 2.3 Experimental design Trees were divided into five different groups: not covered trees (NC); trees with windbreak protection using a shading net (SN); trees with windbreak protection using non-woven sheets (WB); fully covered trees using non-woven sheets (FC); fully covered trees with non-woven sheets and the addition of a 'heat exchanger' device (FC+). Their canopies were fully covered (FC and (FC+) or enclosed by a hand-made individual windbreaks (SN and WB) and constituted by three poles and a metal mesh of large mesh support (20x20) covered by different materials (Figure 1). 2.4 The non-woven fabrics The spun-bonded type (generic name of non-woven fabrics (NWF) obtained directly from polymers and not from a bottom of fibers or from pre-existing wires, is constituted by a mat of continuous threads extruded from a battery of spinnerets, with the intersection points between the wires same softened and bonded using heated presses. 824 2.5 The "heat exchanger" device The "heat exchanger" device (HEX) consists of a cylindrical cable placed horizontally at 50 cm depth in the soil and by two conduits with thin aluminium cans (diameter: 64 mm) connected to the ends of the exchanger, one outcropping on the surface with the mouth a few cm above the ground, the other one with the outlet to some cm height from the ground level and placed inside the canopy created by the TNT protection. The conduits were made with a normal 70 mm in cable duct coiled tubing. 2.6 Data logging: devices and software To create the monitoring network self-built data loggers have been assembled (Figure 2), each one equipped with three temperature sensors (Texas Instruments TMP112). The technical characteristics of the sensors are: maximum operating temperature +125 °C; minimum operating temperature -40 °C; accuracy with calibration down to ±0.17 °C; accuracy without calibration ±0.5 °C between 0 °C and 65 °C, ±1 °C between -40 °C and 125 °C; resolution 12 bit (corresponding to 0.0625 °C); supply voltage range 1.4 V to 3.6 V; digital output on I2C bus. The datalogger consists of a sealed plastic box containing a Texas Instruments MSP- EXP430F5529LP module, based on a MSP-430 microcontroller, and a custom Printed Circuit Board (PCB) mounting a battery holder and power electronics that enables the device to be powered either by two AA batteries or via an USB cable. Each temperature sensor is connected to the module by a 4-conductors shielded cable, and is mounted on a small PCB encapsulated in a protective, high thermal conductivity epoxy cube. The microcontroller firmware was designed specifically to maximize the battery life and optimize the memory storage usage. The temperature is recorded every 15 minutes under 4 °C; over 4 °C the temperature is measured every 15 minutes, but the values are stored only if there is a difference of more than 0.5 °C respect to the last stored value. It was designed to connect via USB to a PC and to use a serial terminal (we choose the free software "Realterm", realterm.software.informer.com) for monitoring the unit status and to download the stored data (including battery status, number of data records, the three temperature sensors measurements, date and time of activation). Data logger were used (Figure 2) for the monitoring of the outside temperature, soil temperature (10, 30 and 50 cm in the soil) and inside the canopy of plants. Inside the rooms were positioned at the same height from the floor (50 cm) and with opposite north-south orientation (two Figure 2. a) Heat exchanger dispositive; b) Self-built dataloggers based on a TI (Texas Instruments) MSP- 430 microcontroller and equipped with TI TMP112 temperature sensors. Figure 1. Different kind of canopy protection (on the first line, from left to right) and the relative effect of cold season on the canopy (on the second line): trees with windbreak protection using a shading net (SN); trees with windbreak protection using non-woven sheets (WB); fully covered trees with non-woven sheets and the addition of a 'heat exchanger' device (FC+). On the second line the effect of cold temperature after protection removal. 825 sensors under each plant). External sensors were positioned at the same height from the ground always inside the uncovered plant canopy, always with north-south orientation. Moreover, it was measured the damage threshold by evaluating the percentage of shoots affected by cold damage of the first vegetative flow. 3. Results and discussions The time course of soil temperature (Figure 3) showed a similar trend along the three depth but the temperature decreased from 50 to 10 cm of depth. The lowest temperature was observed at 10 cm during the night of 31th December and 1th January (3.3° C), at 30 cm during the night of 1th January (6.5°C) and at 50 cm during the night of 1th January (9.6°C). Figure 4 compares FC, FC+ and NC treatments. FC+ always showed the highest temperatures. Especially with the thesis FC, differences appear rather small while with NC trees when are more pronounced. Even during the coldest night of the trial, a positive role of the heat exchanger was confirmed: in fact in FC+ was detected an average temperature of 1.7° C while in the FC of 1.6° C and in the plants NC of 1.3° C. 0 5 10 15 20 1 0 -D e c 2 0 -D e c 3 0 -D e c 9 -J a n 1 9 -J a n 2 9 -J a n 8 -F e b 1 8 -F e b 2 8 -F e b te m p e ra tu re ( °C ) days 50 cm 30 cm 10 cm 0 4 8 12 1 2 :0 0 A M 1 :1 5 A M 2 :3 0 A M 3 :4 5 A M 5 :0 0 A M 6 :1 5 A M 7 :3 0 A M 8 :4 5 A M 1 0 :0 0 A M 1 1 :1 5 A M 1 2 :3 0 P M 1 :4 5 P M 4 :0 0 P M 5 :1 5 P M 6 :3 0 P M 7 :4 5 P M 9 :0 0 P M 1 0 :1 5 P M 1 1 :3 0 P M te m p e ra tu re ( °C ) period (h) OPN TNT TNT+SC 0 4 8 12 1 2 :0 0 A M 1 :1 5 A M 2 :3 0 A M 3 :4 5 A M 5 :0 0 A M 6 :1 5 A M 7 :3 0 A M 8 :4 5 A M 1 0 :0 0 A M 1 1 :1 5 A M 1 2 :3 0 P M 1 :4 5 P M 4 :0 0 P M 5 :1 5 P M 6 :3 0 P M 7 :4 5 P M 9 :0 0 P M 1 0 :1 5 P M 1 1 :3 0 P M te m p e ra tu re ( °C ) period (h) OPN TR+TNT Date I VF RF II VF III VF 11/24//14 17 12/09/14 110 510 12/25/14 315 514 01/05//15 315 514 01/15/15 317 514 02/09/15 317 515 27 02/25/15 317 515 120 20 03/15/15 317 515 120 21 04/07/15 319 517 125 110 04/24/15 319 517 129 121 05/11/15 319 611 322 125 05/22/15 319 619 325 129 06/07/15 319 619 325 322 06/27/15 319 703 325 NC FC FC+ NC SN Figure 3. Time course of temperature (C°) measured at three different soil depth. Figure 4. Time course of temperature (C°) in NC, FC and FC+ treatment during the coldest day (12/31/2014). Each value is the average of North and South sensors. Table 1: Phenological stages in FC and FC+ trees. In NC, SN and WB the first vegetative flush was loss by cold temperature. I, II, III VF (First, second, third vegetative flush); RF (Reproductive Flush). Figure 5. Time course of temperature (C°) in treatment NC and SN during the coldest day (12/31/2014). Each value is the average of North and South sensors. 826 The differences between the three treatments, that might seem irrelevant, combined with the protection of the canopy protected young shoots from the cold wind. Temperatures in SN and NC plants do not differ. During the coldest 24 hours (Figure 5) SN would seem to be a negative effect on the shoots and leaves (Figure 1). We have also verified that the first vegetative flush was burned by cold temperatures in both SN and NC treatments. Therefore, SN did not contribute to canopy protection in young trees. The negative aspects of the SN is the complete open of the top and the bottoms parts of the canopy. This fact clearly allows a better cold air circulation that, in very cold days, burn the young sprouts (Figure 1). Although the traditional protection with NWF (WB) in respect to traditional system (SN) than the protected plants with a windbreak net, maintained a best temperature inside the canopy, it does not permit to preserve the first vegetative flush. Hence, this system has not been helpful in preserve tree canopy. The damage threshold indicated an average percentage of 97% of shoots affected by cold damage in the NC, SN and WB and no injuries in FC and FC+ treatments. The BBCH scale is based on two vegetative flushes but, in our case are, are three (Table 1). In all treatments except FC and FC+, the first vegetative flush was burned by cold temperatures (Figure 1). The same behaviour was observed in the plants SN and WB when the 100% of the buds of first flush vegetation and reproduction were burned from the cold temperature with the development of necrosis followed by fungal disease. 4. Conclusions As is well known, low temperature is the environmental factor that most affect the possibility of mango diffusion in Mediterranean climate. Therefore, in addition to collective wind deflector, the adoption of Individual plant protection from adverse temperature has always been a necessity for young mango trees. Hence, we analyzed the behavior of young mango plants during a winter in Mediterranean climate focusing our attention on traditional individual protective canopy protection systems in comparison with innovative typologies designed for this experiment. The use of non-woven fabric, preserve the plants from cold temperature but just in FC and FC+ thesis, where the plants were completely covered, by creating a closed space where the canopy was isolated from the outside. In fact, traditional protection SN and WB, where the plants were only enclosed along the sides by shading net and non-woven sheets respectively showed a negative results with vegetative damages such as in NC treatment. More particular, in NC, WB and SN, the young shoot was injured by necrosis followed by fungal disease whereas in the FC and FC+ the shoots were intact. Thus, a key role is being played by the closed space in which the leaves and shoots were isolated from the outside. In fact, the temperatures recorded inside the closed space were always higher (although a few °C degree) than the outside temperature. 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