控制作物负荷的新思路.docxVIP

New idea for controlling crop load New Zealand researchers studying artificial spur extinction to help with crop load management. An apple orchard’s crop load ultimately determines the value of the crop — yield potential, fruit size and fruit quality — and managing crop loads requires precision. That’s particularly true in modern, high-density orchards with dwarfing rootstocks that produce thousands of flowers per tree. Growers today employ chemical, mechanical and hand-thinning practices to remove excess flowers and fruit, but a tree’s responses to chemical and mechanical thinning methods are