Abstract
Sweet cherry is a high value crop where quality attracts a significant premium. Key quality attributes are size, firmness, colour and sugar content as well as lack of physical defects such as cracking, pitting or bruising. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of crop load and timing of crop load regulation on 'Van' and 'Sweetheart' fruit quality. In the 2010/11 season trees on F12-1 rootstocks trained to the KGB system were thinned to 1, 2 or 4 buds spur-1 at pre-bloom, full bloom (FB), 2, 4 or 6 weeks after full bloom (WAFB). Fruit diameter was significantly lower in the 4 buds spur-1 treatment (around 26-28mm) relative to other treatments (around 28-31mm) in 'Van' at all thinning times with the earliest thinning treatments being the most effective. In contrast, 'Sweetheart' fruit diameter was only significantly lower in the 4 buds spur-1 treatment (26-27mm) relative to other treatments (27.5-29mm) at the later thinning times of 6 and 8 WAFB. Fruit soluble solids generally mirrored these trends. Flesh firmness was higher in lower crop loads in 'Van' and was consistent with time after FB. In 'Sweetheart' firmness was higher in the 1 bud spur-1 treatment only and decreased when thinning occurred 6 and 8 WAFB. Exocarp colour was unaffected by crop load or timing of thinning. Incidence of rain-induced fruit cracking was inversely proportional to crop load being around 60, 40 and 20-30% in the 1, 2 and 4 buds spur-1 treatments, respectively. Crop load targets for optimal fruit yield-quality relationships appear to be around 20tha-1, though this will carry a greater risk of fruit cracking than higher crop loads.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Four buds per spur reduced Van fruit diameter at all thinning times.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry
Prunus aviumt0 - Material
- 'Van'e0
- Treatment
- 4 buds spur-1 treatmente0
- Outcome
- Fruit diametere0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- around 26-28mme0
- Qualifier
- at all thinning timese0
- Comparator
- other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Fruit diameter was significantly lower in the 4 buds spur-1 treatment (around 26-28mm) relative to other treatments (around 28-31mm) in 'Van' at all thinning times with the earliest thinning treatments being the most effective.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Four buds per spur reduced Sweetheart fruit diameter only at 6 and 8 WAFB.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Material
- 'Sweetheart'e0
- Treatment
- 4 buds spur-1 treatmente0
- Outcome
- fruit diametere0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- 26-27mme0
- Qualifier
- 6 and 8 WAFBe0
- Comparator
- other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In contrast, 'Sweetheart' fruit diameter was only significantly lower in the 4 buds spur-1 treatment (26-27mm) relative to other treatments (27.5-29mm) at the later thinning times of 6 and 8 WAFB.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Fruit soluble solids generally mirrored the diameter trends.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- Fruit soluble solidse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Fruit soluble solids generally mirrored these trends.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Van flesh firmness was higher at lower crop loads.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Material
- 'Van'e0
- Treatment
- lower crop loadse0
- Outcome
- Flesh firmnesse0
- Direction
- highere0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Flesh firmness was higher in lower crop loads in 'Van' and was consistent with time after FB.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Sweetheart firmness was higher only at one bud per spur.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Material
- 'Sweetheart'e0
- Treatment
- 1 bud spur-1 treatmente0
- Outcome
- firmnesse0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In 'Sweetheart' firmness was higher in the 1 bud spur-1 treatment only and decreased when thinning occurred 6 and 8 WAFB.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Sweetheart firmness fell when thinning occurred at 6 and 8 WAFB.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Material
- 'Sweetheart'e0
- Treatment
- thinning occurred 6 and 8 WAFBe0
- Outcome
- firmnesse0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In 'Sweetheart' firmness was higher in the 1 bud spur-1 treatment only and decreased when thinning occurred 6 and 8 WAFB.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Exocarp colour was unaffected by crop load or thinning timing.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- crop load or timing of thinninge0
- Outcome
- Exocarp coloure0
- Direction
- unaffectede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Exocarp colour was unaffected by crop load or timing of thinning.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Rain-induced cracking incidence was 60 at 1.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- 1e0
- Outcome
- Incidence of rain-induced fruit crackinge0
- Direction
- inversely proportionale0
- Value
- 60e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Incidence of rain-induced fruit cracking was inversely proportional to crop load being around 60, 40 and 20-30% in the 1, 2 and 4 buds spur-1 treatments, respectively.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Rain-induced cracking incidence was 40 at 2.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- 2e0
- Outcome
- Incidence of rain-induced fruit crackinge0
- Direction
- inversely proportionale0
- Value
- 40e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Incidence of rain-induced fruit cracking was inversely proportional to crop load being around 60, 40 and 20-30% in the 1, 2 and 4 buds spur-1 treatments, respectively.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
Rain-induced cracking incidence was 20-30% at 4 buds spur-1 treatments.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- 4 buds spur-1 treatmentse0
- Outcome
- Incidence of rain-induced fruit crackinge0
- Direction
- inversely proportionale0
- Value
- 20-30%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Incidence of rain-induced fruit cracking was inversely proportional to crop load being around 60, 40 and 20-30% in the 1, 2 and 4 buds spur-1 treatments, respectively.”
t0“sweet cherry”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest a crop load target around 20tha-1 for yield-quality balance, with increased cracking risk.
- Taxon
- sweet cherryPrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- Crop load targets for optimal fruit yield-quality relationshipse0
- Value
- around 20tha-1e0
- Qualifier
- greater risk of fruit crackinge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Crop load targets for optimal fruit yield-quality relationships appear to be around 20tha-1, though this will carry a greater risk of fruit cracking than higher crop loads.”
t0“sweet cherry”
The same questions in other papers
pruning · quality: postharvest · Prunus avium (sweet cherry)Positive and negative results
3 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.