RIA: Revista Investigaciones Agropecuarias (Apr 2013)
Efecto de la intensidad y época de realización del raleo sobre el rendimiento y la calidad de fruto en el cultivo de cerezos
Abstract
The objective of this work was to quantify the effects of intensity and time thinning of yield and fruit qualityin sweet cherry. The experiment was performed in a commercial organic orchard trained as tatura in Chubut,Argentina. The treatments resulted from the combination of three levels of thinning intensity (elimination of30%, 60% and 90% of the reproductive organs) and three thinning moments (1, 24 and 47 days after fullbloom in “Lapins” and 7, 31 and 64 in “Sweetheart”), besides the controls of each cultivar. At harvest time theyield was registered, the quality parameters (firmness, soluble solids content, mean fruit weight and mean fruitdiameter) were evaluated and the leaf area per tree was estimated. The yield significantly decreased only inrelation to the thinning intensity. In “Lapins”, the mean fruit weight and the fruit diameter increased in relation tothat variable. On the contrary, in “Sweetheart”, the thinning intensity did not have a significant effect, but it wasdetected a reduction in mean fruit weight and fruit diameter as the fruit-thinning was delayed. In both cultivarsthe soluble solids content was higher as the fruit-thinning intensity increased. In “Lapins”, the firmness was notaffected by the thinning intensity neither by the thinning moment. In “Sweetheart”, on the contrast, this variabledecreased in relation the moment of the operation. Within the ranges of the analyzed data, the yield increasedlineally as a function of the fruit/leaf ratio, both in “Sweetheart” and in “Lapins”. In “Lapins”, the mean fruitweight decreased as a function of the fruit/leaf ratio, but no effects were detected in “Sweetheart”. However, in both cultivars fruit diameter reductions were detected in relation to the fruit/leaf ratio. In “Lapins”, the soluble solids content significantly decreased as a function of the fruit/leaf ratio, but in “Sweetheart” no effect of the crop load were detected on this variable. Analogously, in “Lapins” the firmness decreased as the fruit/leaf ratio increased, but this relationship was not detected in “Sweetheart”.
