Hand-thinning, the physical removal of blossoms or immature fruit, can increase apple fruit size and quality at harvest. Maximal benefit of fruit size increase due to green fruit thinning occurred at or before 40 d after full bloom ( Batjer et al
, midseason crop estimation and fruit thinning about 1 month after bloom to improve juice quality has been studied as a viable commercial option in ‘Concord’ vineyards ( Bates, 2006 ; Pool et al., 1993 ). Decreasing production costs. After the adoption of
growth and final size of the fruit ( Agustí and Almela, 1984 ; Agustí et al., 2003 ; Mesejo et al., 2003 ). To decrease this competition, “thinning,” which is the removal of some flowers and/or fruit in the earliest development stage, is a common
fruit size of cactus pear. In view of export markets, fruit thinning is a common practice to increase fruit size and to speed up ripening ( Inglese, 1995 ; Inglese et al., 1995 ). The reproductive bud (RB) thinning threshold has been established at six
Growers are finding it increasingly difficult to find a workforce to manually thin fruit crops, and the cost of farm labor is increasing. Glozer and Hasey (2006) estimated that hand thinning labor represented 31% of all cultural costs associated
fixed intervals without considering the actual location of plants. When the stand before thinning was not uniform and plants were removed between set spacing, this resulted in large gaps in the rows ( Siemens et al., 2012 ). For selective thinners
2015, the total area of mandarins planted in South Africa increased by 21% from 6401 to 7722 ha, more than any other group of cultivars. Mandarin fruit generally colors well, have excellent taste, exhibit little or no seeds, and have thin rinds that are
vivipary can occur when green shucks fail to dehisce, and is often associated with high humidity between the shell and shuck and high air temperatures during ripening ( Sparks et al., 1995 ). Mechanical fruit thinning has been used as a tool to minimize the
). Successful implementation of minimal or machine pruning in vineyards often requires hand follow-up or fruit thinning to achieve desired fruit maturity and composition ( Fendinger et al., 1996 ; Fisher et al., 1996a , 1996b ; Morris, 2005 ; Petrie and
. Glozer and Hasey (2006) estimated that hand-thinning labor represents 31% of all cultural costs associated with cling peach production, with labor requirements ranging from 25 to over 100 h/acre. Estimates for other fresh fruit peach cultivars are