Line Index Explained

The following values have been calculated for five lines (trees) as an example. Please note that data collection on this portion of the farm only began in 2006, so not all variables were quantified every year. For the table to fit this window, 2006 data had to be excluded.

Line (Tree)			2007					2008
			A S	NY	SI	DBH	K%	NY	SI	DBH	ABNY
1	1	14	1	3.51	0.69	13.5	21.9	3.27	0.70	15.4	0.50
1	2	12	1	0.65	0.61	16.7	25.7	7.88	0.51	18.5	0.75
1	1	17	1	1.81	0.69	12.5	19.5	0.00	0.70	14.7	0.90
1	7	12	2	5.49	0.67	8.6	21.8	2.93	0.70	10.1	0.61
1	4	27	3	1.49	0.57	10.0	24.2	3.44	0.55	11.3	0.24

Codes

AS: Anthracnose Score - Incidence of Leaf Spotting Disease 1 (low) to 5

NY: Nut Yield - Number of nuts per sq cm trunk diameter at DBH

SI: Shell Index - Shell weight per cc nut volume

K%: Kernel Percentage - Kernel proportion of nut by weight

DBH: Diameter at Breast Height - Measure of tree size (at 135cm from ground)

ABNY: Alternate Bearing Index (from NY) - Annual variability in NY 0 (low) to 1

On the far right-hand side are the calculated (multi-year) Alternate Bearing Indices, where it can be seen that 1-4-27 and 1-1-17 are the two extremes, the latter so far expressing high alternate bearing (closest to 1). If you find this hard to understand, or want to know how to calculate it from the above data, several references to this characteristic can be unearthed by searching on the term on the internet. High ABI or ABNY is not desirable, unless the biennial compensation in NY makes up for non-production in the off years. I am not ready to thin out 1-1-17 just yet.

In a future post I will discuss using the combination of these variables as a selection tool.