Olive pruning management with mobile laser scanner

The majority of Italian olive orchards are small-scale farms that differ in management styles. The management of pests, irrigation, and pruning is becoming more challenging due to the rise in extreme meteorological events brought on by climate change. Olive orchard pruning, a major postharvest cost in olive farming, is becoming increasingly important due to labour shortages. In medium to low-density orchards, the polyconic vase with a less geometrical order was introduced to simplify and expedite pruning, but it requires very specialized labour. In high-density orchards with a hedgerow canopy, the pruning is simplified with mechanical interventions, but this system struggles to maintain constant yields from year to year. Both orchard systems would benefit from a decision support system that could better organize pruning operations in large farms or productive areas with multiple farms lacking specialized labour. This experimental work has tested different pruning techniques and intensities in a medium-density orchard (polyconic vase) and a super high-density orchard, supported using a mobile laser scanner (MLS) for canopy volume measurements. The different pruning intensities were described by point cloud data before and after the pruning and again after 2 years. Different pruning intensities can be detected by MLS in both density systems in all cultivars and likely the measurements can be useful for a pluriannual organization of pruning in large farms or communities.