Fruit Bites for April 26-28 Accede Pt 3

BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. With us again is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, we are doing a final 3rd segment on apple thinning. How do you thin apples over 15 mm?

AW: you’ve had other timings to thin, but you want to take another nibble of fruit off before you send in the hand thinning crew. The 15mm timing is around the last opportunity to use a PGR and get effective thinning. Accede drops all the clusters that have tiny fruit, drops the laterals and leaves the king bloom or largest fruitlet and helps reduce the cluster when fruitlets are all similar sizes.

BL: (your turn)

AW: Accede leaves a clue if that fruit is going to drop. In trials and demos across the PNW, we have seen the apple stem turn a shade of yellow. the abscission zone between the stems and the fruit spur have loosened. This makes hand thinning quicker as the fruit is easier to remove.

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.