Juan Luis Jacobo-Cuéllar

Intensidad de raleo y calidad de fruto en durazno cv Baby Gold 8

In 2010 this field experiment was conducted in a peach orchard of 5 years, with the variety Baby Gold 8 grafted in Nemaguard where a load of 1-7 fruits per cm 2 of the branch cross-sectional area (BCSA) was adjusted by manual fruit thinning. Thinning was done 45 days after full bloom. Results indicate that higher fruit loading increases yield and decreases the fruit size. The load adjustment in peach fruit allows to program the final size. The highest production value is obtained by leaving 4 to 5 fruits per BCSA. Fruit firmness is not affected by its load, while total soluble solids showed significant differences. The highest vegetative growth occurred in the upper branch and in the lower part, by the effect of shade, growth is lower.