Does anyone here have experience with these?
We would like to buy four mechanical thinners but I would like to hear opinions. Has anyone here worked with these before?
Does anyone here have experience with these?
We would like to buy four mechanical thinners but I would like to hear opinions. Has anyone here worked with these before?
The labor intensive, time-consuming task of thinning has occupied my thoughts lately and I was intrigued by your posting. I am considering chemical thinning (Regalia + oil) for apples but I see that chemical thinning seems to have limited effect in peaches.
In peaches mechanical thinning of blossoms is preferable because peaches (generally, depending on region) do not have many leaves during bloom period. I can imagine a ragged row of leaves if this method were applied to apples.
In areas where there is a risk of late season frosts/freezes, I’ve read that mechanical thinning may result in over-thinning. I suppose the solution would be an early pregnancy test—a rapid, portable, analytical tool to use in the field to assess how many flowers are going to set. For apples there is a pollen tube growth data, but I have not found similar data for peaches.
I wonder if, because sunlight promotes coloration, mechanical pruning might need to be concentrated on the inside canopy. In commercial orchards using mechanical thinning, follow-up hand thinning is still used. Still a lot of work.
You asked for experience…I have none. But I am intrigued by the pros/cons of the concept.