Mechanical and Chemical Thinning of Apple

The over bearing in apples can be regulated either with mechanical or with chemical thinning agents. An experimant was, therefore, laid out to compare efficacy of these methods on Jonathan variety of the apple. Hand-thinning increased the weight, volume and diameter of the fruits as compared with all other treatments in both the years. It was followed by Sevin. The smallest sized fruits were obtained under control. The control gave more yield by number and weight than all other treatments and it was the least under hand-thinning in both the years. Hand-thinning increased the T. S. S. in fruit juice as indicated by the mean of the two years. The acidity was more in the fruit juice produced under the control trees. Hand-thinning also increased the quantity of ‘A’ grade fruits which resulted ultimately in the decrease of ‘B’ grade and ‘C’ grade fruits in both the years. The ‘A’ grade fruit was minimum under the control.