13- Thinning

Plant species flower to produce fruit, which are their seeds, their reproductive organs.

Pollination allows the flower to be fecundated by pollen from the same flower or from another. Pollinators agents, especially bees, play an important role in this process by serving in the transport of the pollen.

Then unpollinated flowers will fall, and then will occur a phenomenon of natural fruit fall. The remaining fruits sets till maturity.

The farmer follows and helps this process. When natural falls are completed, the plant still supports a number of fruits that will be variable depending on the conditions of flowering, physiological and climatic. The farmer knows, from experience, the optimal number of fruit to left on the plant, or the organ that bears the flowers, to ensure optimal commercial and taste quality.

Thinning is to eliminate the excess of fruits when this happens. There are several ways and times to do it.

In the case of peachtree, it can be done before blooming and on small fruit, always manually. We sometimes take this opportunity to eliminate some shoots that are poorly located in the tree.

Here are some illustrations of the work. In this case, the goal is to leave four fruits per branch on nectarine and peach.

Peach branch before thinning.

 The same branch after thinning

Nectarine branch before thinning

 The same branch after thinning

The row of trees during thinning. Notice the ground, covered with fruit and shoots after the passage of the workers.