Abstract
Tree crop modeling could be instrumental in facilitating integration of numerous aspects of the development, growth and physiology of fruit tree crops and provide a valuable tool for testing concepts for understanding how fruit trees work, if it could be achieved. This chapter presents a synopsis of how modeling of fruit trees was approached. It focuses on the development of a mechanistic, compartmental model of mature peach tree carbon partitioning over a growing season. The model was termed a compartmental model because carbohydrates were only distributed to the collective compartments of fruits, leaves, stems and large branches, and the trunk according to their relative demand functions as the season progressed. Roots were only given carbohydrates when the demands of all of the other organs were fulfilled. This model demonstrated that carbohydrate partitioning in trees could be modeled without deterministic, empirically derived, partitioning coefficients and was useful for indicating periods of the growing season when calculated photosynthetic assimilation was not adequate to supply calculated carbohydrate demands of growing organs. The development of the described model is so complex that the modeling work will never be fully completed. However, to demonstrate the utility of this modeling approach, it was decided to develop an L-Almond model using the same approach.