Articles
PRINCIPLES OF THINNING IN FRUIT TREE CROPS – NEEDS AND NOVELTIES
Article number
998_1
Pages
17 – 26
Language
English
Abstract
Fruit trees bear an abundance of flowers, which they cannot support until fruit maturation; ca. 7% of flowers are necessary in apple for a sufficient harvest while 25% of flowers are necessary in peach.
Thinning is hence a prerequisite in fruit crops i) to achieve high quality fruit with sufficient size and colouration for class I marketing including sugar (as a parameter for taste) and sufficient firmness (as a parameter for good storability), ii) to reduce labour-intense hand thinning and iii) to overcome alternate bearing (change of low and high yielding years) by providing regular moderate yields.
Thinning is hence a prerequisite in fruit crops i) to achieve high quality fruit with sufficient size and colouration for class I marketing including sugar (as a parameter for taste) and sufficient firmness (as a parameter for good storability), ii) to reduce labour-intense hand thinning and iii) to overcome alternate bearing (change of low and high yielding years) by providing regular moderate yields.
Publication
Authors
G. Costa, M.M. Blanke, A. Widmer
Keywords
alternate bearing, biennial bearing, fruit colouration, fruit firmness, fruit quality
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