Blossom Thinners Reduce Crop Load and Increase Fruit Size and Quality of Peaches

Coneva, Elina D.; Cline, John A.

doi:10.21273/hortsci.41.5.1253

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Reductions in SSC with high crop load may have been the result of reductions in soluble carbohydrates, increased competition for assimilate between plant organs resulting from increased crop load. Similar findings were reported by Coneva and Cline (2006) in 'Redhaven' peaches. SSC is increasing due to the increase of ATS doses.…”

Section: Fruit Qualitysupporting

confidence: 90%

Crop Load Regulation With Chemical Thinners in Deveci Pear (Pyrus Communis L.)

Kaçal¹

2018

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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The efficacy of three different doses of ammonium thiosulfate (ATS), potassium thiosulfate (KTS) and BA (6-benzyladenine) on fruit quality, yield and return bloom was evaluated in this present experiment on 'Deveci' pear (Pyrus communis, L.). All treatments were compared to an unsprayed control and hand fruit thinning. The highest fruit set was achieved with BA treatments. It was significantly reduced in KTS rates compared to control and other thinning treatments. KTS sprays create a statistically significant increase in fruit diameter and fruit weight, while ATS and BA have had no dramatic effect. Hand fruit thinning has resulted in heavier fruit at harvest similar to KTS with 2%. Thinners increased the percentage of fruit to 75 mm in diameter and proportions to 250-500 g fruit weight. In the control trees, the ratio of fruit to 75 mm diameter was 57%, the 75% or more of which was in hand thinning and chemical thinners. The proportion of fruits within 250-500 g fruit weight group was found in the highest KTS doses. No physiological disorder as bitter pit, water core, and aging disorder and phytotoxicity were observed in fruit samples. Study results show that 2% KTS significantly reduce crop load and increased fruit quality in 'Deveci' pear. Therefore, it can be used as an alternative to hand fruit thinning in the 'Deveci' pear to achieve high fruit quality. But, neither flower nor fruit thinners induced return bloom in 'Deveci' pear.

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Section: Fruit Qualitysupporting

confidence: 90%

Crop Load Regulation With Chemical Thinners in Deveci Pear (Pyrus Communis L.)

Kaçal¹

2018

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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“…Higher tree crop loads can negatively influence FW, hence the requirement to thin peaches (Coneva and Cline 2006). To normalize any effect of vary crop loads among rootstocks, FW was adjusted using crop load as a co-variate using the method of Marini et al (2012).…”

Section: Fruit Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early performance of several Prunus interspecific hybrid rootstocks for Redhaven peach in southern Ontario

Cline

Bakker

2022

Can. J. Plant Sci.

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A multi-year orchard experiment was established to measure the performance of Rootpac®-R, Rootpac®-20, Rootpac®-40, and Rootpac®-70 rootstocks using ‘Redhaven’ peach (Prunus persica var. persica) as the scion, and compared with the Bailey peach seedling rootstock, the current industry standard. Tree survival after five years was 79% on Rootpac-40, whereas the remaining rootstocks showed no tree mortality. Tree vigour and canopy height and width were influenced by rootstock genotype beginning the year of planting in 2016. For the first five years of production, Rootpac-70 consistently produced the largest trees based on TCSA and by year five, all rootstocks produced trees with similar TCSAs, except for Rootpac-70, which was 38% larger than Bailey. By year five, cumulative yields were greatest on Rootpac-70, which were 10% higher than Bailey; cumulative yields of Rootpac-R, Rootpac-20, and Rootpac-30 were 98%, 89%, and 84% that of Bailey, respectively. Cumulative yield efficiency was significantly influenced by rootstock although the magnitude of the differences was small and likely of insignificant commercial importance. Rootpac-40 consistently produced the largest fruit. These results are only reflective of the orchard establishment years and additional data are required before peach producers can make fully informed decisions concerning the rootstocks evaluated in this study for their orchard systems. However, at this juncture, all the Rootpac rootstocks evaluated in this study are likely to impart excessive vigour to be used in a higher density system and offer little advantage over Bailey.

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“…One experimental approach can be to prevent fruit growth, which is the most resourcedemanding phase of the reproductive cycle, by harvesting all fruits early in their development on some trees (Obeso 2002, Bogdziewicz et al 2020) and determine whether their resource levels at the end of the reproductive season are higher than in control trees. Flower and fruit thinning is a common agronomic practice in commercial fruit crops in order to reduce alternate bearing patterns and increase fruit size and quality (Coneva and Cline 2006). Flower and fruit removal experiments have thus mainly been realised in fruit crop species (Reig et al 2006, Verreynne and Lovatt 2009, Samach and Smith 2013, Fernandez et al 2018), but also in herbaceous plants (Crone et al 2009), to determine how it impacted resource storage and further flowering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproduction alternation in trees: testing the resource depletion hypothesis using experimental fruit removal inQuercus ilex

et al. 2023

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The key stones of resource budget models to explain mast seeding are that fruit production depletes tree stored resources, which become subsequently limiting to flower production the following year. These two hypotheses have, however, rarely been tested in forest trees. Using a fruit removal experiment, we tested whether preventing fruit development would increase nutrient and carbohydrates storage and modify allocation to reproduction and vegetative growth the following year. We removed all the fruits from nine adult Quercus ilex trees shortly after fruit set and compared, with nine control trees, the concentrations in nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, potassium and starch in leaves, twigs and trunk before, during and after the development of female flowers and fruits. The following year, we measured the production of vegetative and reproductive organs as well as their location on the new spring shoots. Fruit removal prevented the depletion of nitrogen and zinc in leaves during fruit growth. It also modified the seasonal dynamics in zinc, potassium and starch in twigs, but had no effect on reserves stored in the trunk. Fruit removal increased the production of female flowers and leaves the following year, and decreased the production of male flowers. Our results show that resource depletion operates differently for male and female flowering, because the timing of organ formation and the positioning of flowers in shoot architecture differ between male and female flowers. Our results suggest that nitrogen and zinc availability constrain flower production in Q. ilex, but also that other regulatory pathways might be involved. They strongly encourage further experiments manipulating fruit development over multiple years to describe the causal relationships between variations in resource storage and/or uptake and male and female flower production in masting species.

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Blossom Thinners Reduce Crop Load and Increase Fruit Size and Quality of Peaches

Cited by 15 publications

References 26 publications

Crop Load Regulation With Chemical Thinners in Deveci Pear (Pyrus Communis L.)

Crop Load Regulation With Chemical Thinners in Deveci Pear (Pyrus Communis L.)

Early performance of several Prunus interspecific hybrid rootstocks for Redhaven peach in southern Ontario

Reproduction alternation in trees: testing the resource depletion hypothesis using experimental fruit removal inQuercus ilex

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