PJB-2023-586
Fruit thinning strategy: An effective approach to enhance the quality fruit production and control the split pits incidence in peach (Prunus persica L.)
Syed Tanveer Shah
Abstract
Several fruit trees, especially peach trees, have excessive flower and fruit sets, resulting in a large crop burden on the tree and an inability to develop an appropriate commercial fruit size. In current study, a field experiment was conducted to manage crop load to improve peach crop yield. Fruit trees were thinned at different fruit thinning intensities (no thinning, 20, 40, and 60%) at different time intervals (7, 14, and 21 days after fruit set). The experiment was repeated in two consecutive years to optimize the results. The results showed that plants receiving 60% fruit thinning intensity induced higher fruit volume and weight with more splits incidence. The results of 60% thinning were statistically at par with 40% thinning with more split pit incidence in plants received 60% thinning. Furthermore, the highest total yield tree-1 was observed in peach fruit plants received 20% fruit thinning intensity with the production of inferior marketable fruit. The thinning intensity of 14 days after fruit set resulted in the highest total fruit yield tree-1, fruit volume, weight, and split pits incidence during both the years and their combined mean. The interaction between thinning intensity and thinning time was also significant for fruit weight, volume, and yield except the number of fruit kg-1. It is concluded that peach fruit trees maintained at 40% fruit thinning at a time interval of 14 days after fruit set is the most appropriate crop load management technique for achieving commercially accepted fruit yield and quality.
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