Indian Journal of Horticulture
Year : 1998, Volume : 55, Issue : 4
First page : ( 323) Last page : ( 326)
Print ISSN : 0972-8538.

Effect of flowers and fruit thinning on maturity, yield and quality in peach (Prunus persica Batsch)

Chanana Y.R., Kaur Balwinderjit, Kaundal G.S., Singh Sarbdeep

Department of Horticulture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141 004

Summary

Three chemicals, urea (6 and 8%), paclobutrazol (0.05 and 0.10%), dormex (0.25 and 0.50%) alongwith hand-thinning of flowers at full bloom and of fruits at the pit-hardening stage were tried. All the treatments were applied to the whole tree. Dormex significantly reduced fruit set 2 weeks after application. Fruit maturity was advanced by 5 days by hand-thinning of fruits when done at pit-hardening stage compared to the control. Although highest fruit weight was recorded from the trees treated with dormex 0.5% yet total yield was minimum under this treatment. However, the best quality fruits were obtained from hand-thinning of fruits done at the pit-hardening stage and spaced 10–15 cm apart. Total soluble solids and total sugars were found to be highest, whereas acidity was lowest under this treatment.

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