Machine- VS Hand-Thinning of Peaches

Berlage, A. G.; Langmo, R. Donald

doi:10.13031/2013.33569

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Mechanical-thinning devices that were tested on peach trees in the past included trunk shakers (Berlage and Langmo, 1982), low-frequency electrodynamic limb shakers (Diezma and Rosa, 2005;Glozer and Hasey, 2006), high-pressure water streams (Byers, 1990), rotating rope curtains (Baugher et al, 1991), and spiked drum shaker fruit removal systems (Glenn et al, 1994). None of the thinning mechanisms were widely adopted by the stone fruit industry due to lack of uniform thinning, insufficient economic incentive, or adverse effects on fruit size.…”

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confidence: 99%

String Blossom Thinner Designed for Variable Tree Forms Increases Crop Load Management Efficiency in Trials in Four United States Peach-growing Regions

Baugher

Schupp

Ellis

et al. 2010

hortte

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Hand thinning is a necessary and costly management practice in peach (Prunus persica) production. Stone fruit producers are finding it increasingly difficult to find a workforce to manually thin fruit crops, and the cost of farm labor is increasing. A new “hybrid” string thinner prototype designed to adjust crop load in vase or angled tree canopies was evaluated in processing and fresh fruit plantings in varying production systems in four U.S. growing regions in 2009. Data were uniformly collected across regions to determine blossom removal rate, fruit set, labor required for follow-up green fruit hand thinning, fruit size distribution at harvest, yield, and economic impact. String thinner trials with the variable tree forms demonstrated reduced labor costs compared with hand-thinned controls and increased crop value due to a larger distribution of fruit in marketable and higher market value sizes. Blossom removal ranged from 17% to 56%, hand thinning requirement was reduced by 19% to 100%, and fruit yield and size distribution improved in at least one string-thinning treatment per experiment. Net economic impact at optimum tractor and spindle speeds was $462 to $1490 and $264 to $934 per acre for processing and fresh market peaches, respectively. Case study interviews of growers who thinned a total of 154 acres indicated that commercial adoption of string-thinning technology would likely have positive impacts on the work place environment.

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confidence: 99%

String Blossom Thinner Designed for Variable Tree Forms Increases Crop Load Management Efficiency in Trials in Four United States Peach-growing Regions

Baugher

Schupp

Ellis

et al. 2010

hortte

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“…Effi cacy of bloom sprays typically varies due to weather patterns and stage of bloom and some are not cost effective compared to hand thinning (Byers, 1999;Byers and Lyons, 1983;1984;Coetzee and Theron, 1999;Fallahi, 1997;Lemus, 1998;Southwick et al, 1996Southwick et al, , 1998. Mechanical approaches to thinning are typically conducted at full bloom or shortly after (Baugher et al, 1988(Baugher et al, , 1991Berlage, and Langmo, 1982) but have not been widely adopted by commercial producers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Tergitol TMN-6 for Thinning Peach Blossoms

Wilkins¹,

Ebel²,

Dozier³

et al. 2004

HortSci

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This study was conducted to determine efficacy of Tergitol TMN-6 in thinning peach blossoms. A pretest was conducted and demonstrated no difference between TMN-6 and TMN-10 in efficacy when applied at full bloom or petal fall and at rates of 20 and 40 mL·L-1. In the main test, Tergitol TMN-6 was sprayed once at 10, 20, or 30 mL·L-1 at full bloom or petal fall and compared to an unsprayed control for 3 years. Tergitol caused widespread necrosis of flower parts including sepals, petals, pistils, stamens and peduncles. There was a difference among chemical treatments with more fruit removed at higher concentrations, although the amount of fruit removed was similar for the 20 and 30 mL·L-1 rates. There was no difference in thinning response at full bloom or petal fall, indicating a wide window of efficacy. There was also a difference among years, which was apparently not related to temperature or relative humidity during time of application. Tergitol caused some leaf yellowing and tip burn especially at the higher rates when leaves were present, but the trees did not appear to be seriously affected. Fruit weight was either not affected or larger in some years from treatment. Unlike higher concentrations, tergitol at 10 mL·L-1 did not negatively impact fruit number per tree at harvest. At harvest, fruit weight, skin blush, firmness, and soluble solids at harvest were not affected by treatment. Tergitol TMN-6 proved to be an effective thinning agent and when applied from full bloom to petal fall at 10 mL·L-1 it did not adversely affect the tree or fruit.

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“…However, hand thinning is an expensive, labor-intense practice, and the skilled workforce needed to perform this operation at best is increasingly difficult to find [8]. Depending on planting density, the training system, and the crop load, fruit hand thinning can require, indeed, 60 ÷ 350 h ha −1 [7, [9][10][11] and account for up to 30% of total production costs [9,11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mechanical thinning can reduce the manual thinning requirement from 40% to 100% [8,11,14]. Over the years, a number of thinning devices, with constructively and functionally different operative systems, have been tested on peach and, to a lesser extent, on apricot [24], including hand-held devices [25], trunk shakers [12], spiked drum canopy shakers [2,8,22], frequency electrodynamic limb shakers [9,26]. String thinner devices such as the German-designed Darwin ® or similar machines operating with a rotating rope curtain [8,11,23,27,28] have been quite successfully tested on peach orchards trained to narrow canopy systems, for example, Central leader or perpendicular V, reducing the manual thinning requirement [8,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a New Machine for Flower and Fruit Thinning in Stone Fruits

Assirelli¹,

Giovannini

Cacchi

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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Peach and apricot trees usually set more fruit than they can adequately support. Crop load adjustment through fruit thinning is a routine practice adopted by fruit growers to obtain a marketable product. However, hand thinning is an expensive, labor-intense operation. The interest in the mechanization of thinning has increased in the last decades. A new machine, consisting of a tractor-mounted rotor equipped with elastic rods radially inserted on a central axis, has been recently developed to thin both flowers and green fruits in stone fruit crops. In order to test its effectiveness and optimize the operative conditions, trials were carried out in 2016 in two apricot and two peach commercial orchards located in the northeast Italy. Tests were carried out on narrow-canopied orchards, during blooming time, and on green fruit, assessing the flower and fruit removal percentage and the labor saving as compared with the standard fruit hand-thinning practice. In apricot, the machine removed 20.8% of flowers and 43.6% of fruit, allowing 48% time saving in the follow-up fruit manual thinning as compared with the control (hand-thinning only). In peach, mechanical thinning at blooming time removed 63% of flowers, allowing 42.4% time saving in the follow-up fruit manual thinning as compared with the control, whereas mechanical thinning of fruit at the beginning of pit hardening stage removed less than 10%. The development of a mechanical thinning practice, complemented by a manual finishing, could represent a valuable near-term solution to reduce thinning labor time.

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Machine- VS Hand-Thinning of Peaches

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

String Blossom Thinner Designed for Variable Tree Forms Increases Crop Load Management Efficiency in Trials in Four United States Peach-growing Regions

String Blossom Thinner Designed for Variable Tree Forms Increases Crop Load Management Efficiency in Trials in Four United States Peach-growing Regions

Tergitol TMN-6 for Thinning Peach Blossoms

Evaluation of a New Machine for Flower and Fruit Thinning in Stone Fruits

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