Peach is one of the most important fruit species for human consumption. In the peach cultivation many pomotechnical treatments are conducted and some of the most interesting are summer pruning and fruit thinning. By implementation of mentioned pomotechnical treatments higher fruit quality can be achieved which is nowadays very important for the market fruit value. In this research the influence of summer pruning and fruit thinning in different combinations on the pomological characteristics and physico-chemical properties of peach fruit cultivar ‘Royal Gem’ was studied. Implemented pomotechnical treatments differently affected the studied properties. The highest yield was determined in control (7.23 kg tree-1) while the lowest (4.38 kg tree-1) in treatment 2 (fruit thinning without summer pruning). Fruit thinning and summer pruning significantly influenced on the increase of average fruit weight, fruit firmness and fruit diameter. The lowest fruit weight (75.74 g) was determined in control while the highest fruit weight (92.93 g) was determined in treatment 3 (summer pruning without fruit thinning). The highest fruit diameter (57.69 mm) was also determined in treatment 3 while the lowest in control (52.59 mm). The highest fruit firmness (4.14 kg/cm2) was in treatment 1. For chemical quality properties no significant differences have been determined due to the implemented pomotechnical treatments. The pomotechnical treatments conducted in this research showed to be effective for improving the fruit quality while the best results were achieved by treatment of fruit thinning.

fruit thinning, peach, pomological characteristics, summer pruning, yield

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia