Middletown transcript., 1901-06-01
THE THINNING OF PEACHES

oped in recent years in the states alon
the Great Lakes, in some of the Centrs
States, in the Ozark region of the Soutl
west, in Texas, and along the coast fror
Florida to the older peach growing sec
tions of New Jersey and Delaware. Com
petition in the markets is more severe
and consumers want better fruit thai
ever before. Small peaches break tn
market annually and no longer pay tn
expenses of orchard care and marketing
The demand is for good sized, well col
ored fruit.
Most varieties overbear. The tree Ell
deavors to form large number of seed
while the peach grower wants large fruit
The two processes are opposed to eacf
other. Seed or pit production exhaust'
the tree and causes it to bear small fruit
while it is the aim of the orchardist tc
grow the largest possible bulk of peaches
with the smallest bulk of pits. A bushe
of large fruit exhausts the tree less than
bushel of small fruit. The bigger
peaches have greater proportion oI
flesh, which is principally water.
The principal advantage of thinning
are:
l. 1t makes larger and more uniform
fruit.
2. Large fruit exhausts the tree and
soil less than an equal amount of small
fruit.
3. 1t insures more regular crops.
4. The fruit brings higher prices.
The thinning should begin when the
peaches are as large as small cherries and
should end before the pit hardens, as
thinning done after that period does not
seem to increase the size of the remaining
fruit. In Delaware, it should begin by
the first week in June when the curculio-
stung fruits, and the unfertilized and
weak fruits, which later fall in the "June
drop" can be detected. OF the remain
ing peaches, no two should stand closer
than six or eight inches, and it is some
times profitable, especially in years of
general heavy bearings, to thin Elbertas
and other large sorts to ten or twelve
inches. Spurs should generally carry
one peach and seldom more than two.
Peaches have to be thinKed by hand.
No mechanical means of thinning is eff
cient or advisable In large orchards
where the trees are low-headed and the
work can be done principally from the.
ground, it costs from eight to twenty
cents to thin heavily set trees that are
six to eight years old. 1t is more expen-
sive to thin high-headed trees that are
never pruned back.
In the peach belts where thinning Is
generally practiced, the trees are grown
on the low-headed system and the an
nual growth is shortened in from one
third to two-thirds. This pruning is
done after the danger of winter killing is
over and before the blooming period.
1t is thinning process as it removes
many fruit buds, and it has a further adj
vantage in inducing new growth annually
along the larger branches. The superfu-
ous wood induced by the shortening in
must be removed annually. A prelimi-
nary thinning may be done at this time
of year by cutting out unneeded bearing |
wood and by shortening the bearing |
growth.
In 1900, the Experiment Station made
! critical study of peach thinning in
Michigan where the practice is general,
md it was found that profit of one to
i've dollars was realized by many of the
vest peach growers for every dollar ex-
,ended.
The Experiment Station, however, does
lot mean to convey the impression that
'each thinning is all that is necessary to
insure large fruit. Thinning is but one
f the essential operations in modern
peach growing. The others are
illing, fertilizing, pruning, sometimes
praying, and marketing. A good crop
the resultant of the combination of
hese practices, not of any one of them
racticed singly.
The crops of 1896 and 1900 demon
rated that it is no longer good busi-
ess policy to grow small peaches. 1t is
lerefore suggested that every peach
rover who cannot practice general
mining apply it to few rows this year
nd study the effect throughout the sea-
IN. At the end of the year the Expert
lent Station would like to know of the
lccesses and failures, in order that they
lay be studied in a cooperative way.
The following proposition is submitted
| closing the suggestions. The peaches
ave to be picked at sometime. Is it
leaper to pick the small peaches now
nd throw them On the ground, or to
ick them all when they are ripe? The
,maining peaches should make as many
askets if the thinning is properly done
I'D correspondingly good orchard man
cement is bestowed upon the trees.
DELAWARE COLLEGE
EXPERIMENT STATION
Newark, Delaware, May 9th, 1901.
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