Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
you may need to adjust your pruning and training practices to facilitate
mechanical thinning. Because plum trees are generally not trained to flat
walls, thinning with a tractor-mounted string thinner is not a particularly ef-
fective method.
Researchers have tested chemical thinners for plums, but the practice has
not been widely adopted by commercial growers. The available materials
cannot be used in organic orchards.
Bush Cherries and Bush Plums
Bush cherry and bush plum varieties do not require thinning.
Harvesting
For home orchardists, few things beat tree-ripened fruit. For market and
larger commercial orchards, however, determining when to harvest in order
to get the best-quality fruit to your customers becomes more complicated.
Some fruits also do not lend themselves to ripening on the tree.
There are a few things to consider when harvesting fruit. The first is
not to mix fruit that has been damaged by pests, diseases, or weather with
healthy fruit. There is great truth to the adage that one rotten apple spoils
the barrel. Rot organisms can spread from infected to healthy fruits during
picking, transport, sorting, packing, and storage.
Some fruits, like apples, also naturally produce ethylene gas as part of
the ripening process. Ethylene causes fruits to ripen more quickly. Damaged
apples and other ethylene-producing fruits produce more ethylene than nor-
mal and can cause the stored fruits to overripen.
Similarly, be cautious about salvaging dropped fruits from the orchard
floor. For market and commercial orchards, it is often best to cull the fruit,
which may contain insect pests or diseases. Dropped fruit is also typically
bruised from the fall. In some cases, you can carefully examine dropped
apples and cull infested or diseased fruit, then press the good ones for cider.
Cleanliness is critical. Before harvest, ensure that your bins and anything
else that the fruit will touch are clean and disinfected.
