Abstract

BARRETO, Caroline F. et al. Mechanical thinning as an alternative in the cultivation of peach trees. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2019, vol.42, n.2, pp.221-230. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/rca.17178.

In the major peach producing regions, thinning is performed manually, this practice requires high labor availability and cost. Mechanical thinning may be an alternative to manual fruit thinning. In this way, the objective of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of mechanical thinning with different equipment hand conducted in peach trees. The experiment consisted of the following treatments: hand thinning, mechanical flower thinning with the Carpa Electro® equipment, mechanical flower thinning with the trimming equipment and mechanical thinning of the fruits with the trimming equipment. The variables evaluated in the field were percentage of flower and fruit removed, effective fruiting, thinning time, number of fruits per plant, average fruit mass and yield per plant. The hand thinning and mechanical thinning of the flowers with the trimming equipment are effective to increase the yield and fruit size =. Mechanical thinning of flowers and fruits is an alternative to the manual peach tree thinning, due to the capacity of flower and fruit fall and the reduction of the time to thinning perform practice.

Keywords : flowers and fruits removal; fruit size; yield; Prunus persica.

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