Mechanical flower thinning in peach trees

Abstract In cultivation of peaches, thinning is conventionally performed on fruits by hand, and needs to be done in a short time and with specialized labor, which increases the operational costs of this practice. Mechanical thinning can be an alternative to manual fruit thinning. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of mechanical flower thinning with different equipment in advanced peach orchard. The experiment was conducted in 2016 and 2017, combining advanced selections of peach trees and thinning methods. The evaluated variables were percentage of flowers thinning, thinning time, fruit number per plant, plant production, estimated yield, average fruit mass and fruit diameter class. Flower mechanic thinning alters the yield index of peach trees. Mechanical thinning on peach trees was efficient in flower thinning and reduced the practice execution time. Therefore, mechanical thinning is an alternative to the manual fruit thinning of peach trees.