Journal
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE & BIOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 85, Issue 2, Pages 125-130Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/14620316.2010.11512642
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Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Research and Technology (MCyT) [AGL2005-00538]
- CONSOLIDER-INGENIO [CSD2006-00067]
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A fruit thinning strategy is introduced for 'Conference' pear to mitigate water stress and to maximise yield. Three irrigation and four thinning treatments were applied. The three irrigation treatments were: full irrigation (FI); deficit irrigation, receiving 50% of the water in FI (DI-50); and deficit irrigation receiving 20% of the water in FI (DI-20). The four fruit thinning treatments were: no thinning (NT); light thinning (LT), leaving more than 80% of the crop load; medium thinning (MT) leaving 50% of the crop load; and heavy thinning (HT) leaving 20% of the crop load. All thinning treatments were combined with DI-20, but only NT and MT were combined with FI and DI-50. Fruit thinning improved fruit size in FI and DI-50, but is not recommended because of the high labour cost and reduction in total fresh-market yield. For DI-20, thinning increased the midday stem water potential (psi(stem)), improved yield (with LT), and increased fruit size (with HT). A three-dimensional regression model was developed to optimise fresh-market yield by fruit thinning, and showed the impact of psi(stem) Using the model, it was also possible to choose, for each value of psi(stem), a suitable crop load to maximise the fresh-market yield.
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