Maximize Fruit Size Part 4

Maximize Fruit Size! Part 4. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

We have been discussing the ability to maximize fruit size and it’s importance to growers and consumers. Peter Hirst from Purdue University has found that three parts determine fruit size, genetics, culture and environment. Under the environment, temperature can be a key player when it comes to growing fruit at the cellular level.

HIRST: So what have we learned so far, we’ve learned that genetic, environmental and cultural factors all impact fruit size but the all do it in quite different ways and genetic does it mostly through cell number but as we saw with the duration and the intensity of cell division there’s a couple of different mechanisms going on at that time.

Hirst made it clear that in this particular study they did not include all the variables.

HIRST: Environment seems to be entirely cell size and we haven’t looked at water or soil moisture or other things like that, we just looked at temperature in these studies. And cultural in terms of thinning, mostly cell number but cell size also seems to play a role.

At this point he says it is time to start looking at the genetic side to try and influence some of these factors.

HIRST: I know growers for many years have known how to influence fruit size and thinning, now we are starting to understand how some of these practices that you guys do at your orchards affect fruit size. And I think that this has big implications for maybe fruit texture and post harvest quality.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.