THE EFFECT OF ESTABLISHMENT PRUNING AND SUBSEQUENT THINNING LEVEL ON YIELD AND FRUIT SIZE OF YOUNG PEACH TREES

Four pruning methods, ranging from very light to heavy pruning, were applied to newly planted June Lady peach trees.
In subsequent years a uniform corrective pruning regime was applied to all trees.
The total fruit yield (TY) for the second year after planting was higher in those trees which received moderate initial pruning, but yields were similar for all treatments in later years.

During the first year of fruit production half of the trees were assigned to a parallel trial, and in the following two years were thinned to a fruit density (FD) ranging from 5 to 9 and from 8 to 12 fruit per cm of butt circumference respectively.
Trees with higher FD produced higher TY in both years, but the increase in saleable fruit (diameter >64mm) yield with FD was significant in the second year only.
Trees with higher FD produced smaller proportions of large fruit in both years but resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of non-saleable fruit only in the first year.

II International Peach Symposium

T. Jacyna, S.M. Sparrow, K.G. Dodds

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.254.31