Mechanical flower thinning in peach trees

Caroline Farias Barreto,José Francisco Martins Pereira,Jorge Atílio Benati,Letícia Vanni Ferreira,Renan Navroski,Luis Eduardo Correa Antunes

doi:10.1590/0100-29452019465

Abstract

Abstract In cultivation of peaches, thinning is conventionally performed on fruits by hand, and needs to be done in a short time and with specialized labor, which increases the operational costs of this practice. Mechanical thinning can be an alternative to manual fruit thinning. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of mechanical flower thinning with different equipment in advanced peach orchard. The experiment was conducted in 2016 and 2017, combining advanced selections of peach trees and thinning methods. The evaluated variables were percentage of flowers thinning, thinning time, fruit number per plant, plant production, estimated yield, average fruit mass and fruit diameter class. Flower mechanic thinning alters the yield index of peach trees. Mechanical thinning on peach trees was efficient in flower thinning and reduced the practice execution time. Therefore, mechanical thinning is an alternative to the manual fruit thinning of peach trees.

Highlights

Peach trees produce abundant bloom under favorable cultivation conditions, being able to fix more fruits than the plant can support (PEREIRA and RASEIRA, 2014; GIOVANAZ et al, 2016), causing greater competition among fruits and with vegetative growth, water and nutrients
Fruit thinning in peach trees is mainly done manually between 40 and 50 days after full bloom, but this practice needs to be performed in a short period, requiring high labor demand and resulting in high production cost (MCARTNEY et al, 2012; SIMÕES et al, 2013; OLIVEIRA et al, 2017)
As an alternative to Manual fruit thinning in peach trees, studies have been conducted with chemical thinning (GIOVANAZ et al, 2016; BARRETO et al, 2018; FARIAS et al, 2019) and mechanical (MARTIN-GORRIZ et al, 2011; SIMÕES et al, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Peach trees produce abundant bloom under favorable cultivation conditions, being able to fix more fruits than the plant can support (PEREIRA and RASEIRA, 2014; GIOVANAZ et al, 2016), causing greater competition among fruits and with vegetative growth, water and nutrients. In order to avoid excess fruit on plants, the amount per tree should be regulated. This adjustment may be by thinning so that fruits of adequate size are obtained for commercial acceptance (GIOVANAZ et al, 2016; OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). Fruit thinning in peach trees is mainly done manually between 40 and 50 days after full bloom, but this practice needs to be performed in a short period, requiring high labor demand and resulting in high production cost (MCARTNEY et al, 2012; SIMÕES et al, 2013; OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). Among the advantages of mechanical thinning stands out the possibility of thinning in less time compared to fruits manual thinning (MARTIN et al, 2010; MARTINGORRIZ et al, 2011; MILLER et al, 2011)

Objectives

Methods

Results