Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tributed throughout the tree. Alternatively, you can clip off about half of the
flowers from each of the clusters.
You can also thin the fruits shortly after petal fall but before the normal
drop, when the fruits are about
⅜
inch in diameter. By removing fruit clusters
that set late during the bloom, you harvest larger fruits in a shorter peri-
od. Larger commercial growers desire a concentrated harvest. For home and
market production, you might want to keep some of the later fruits in order
to extend the harvest. Using this approach, remove some clusters entirely or
remove some of the fruits from each cluster. When removing some of the
fruits from the clusters, leave roughly three to five fruits per cluster. In Japan,
the 'Tanaka' variety is thinned to one fruit per cluster and 'Mogi' to two fruits
per cluster.
Some growers use chemical thinning methods for loquats, particularly
those in Taiwan, but the results have been variable and the materials used
are not allowed in organic production.
Pears
Pears generally require less thinning than apples, although some thinning
is generally required with European varieties to produce large fruits. Asian
varieties require heavier thinning than European varieties, and the following
recommendations work for both crops. Although some growers thin by clip-
ping off all but two or three flowers per cluster during bloom, thinning nor-
mally starts immediately after June drop, when you can estimate the crop
load.
Some fruit specialists recommend removing all pear fruits from trees for
the first few years after planting in order to allow more energy for tree de-
velopment. This practice is most likely to be useful on trees that are grafted
to dwarfing rootstocks.
For average or light crops, you can usually leave one to three fruits per
spur. 'Bartlett' and 'Bosc' normally set three to five fruits per spur and can
often mature them if the crop load is not too heavy. 'Bartlett' also usually
self-thins enough by itself to produce marketable crops.
