Managing Crop Load To Maximize Profitability

摘要

IN today's competitive commercial stone fruit market, fruit size and actual packout volume per acre are critical components for grower profitability. Because hand thinning can be the largest preharvest cost, what factors can be manipulated to positively influence fruit size and packout at a reasonable cost? The first factor is genetic. Some cultivars have higher flower bud numbers or bloom density than others. Also, some cultivars are genetically "large-fruited" while others are "small-fruited." Research has demonstrated that this latter genetic difference is reflected in the cell number per fruit. Large-fruited cultivars may actually have more than twice as many cells per fruit as small-fruited cultivars. In fact, these cultivar differences can actually be observed in the flower buds the preceding fall! More cells per fruit are capable of being expanded during the final swell phase of fruit growth, so fruit will be larger. Therefore, careful consideration of cultivars and their genetic size potential is one way to ensure optimal performance.