The Latest Technical Method Tutorial for Thinning Flowers and Fruits in Strawberries

During the growth of strawberries, thinning flowers and fruits is a task that often needs to be done, and it can significantly increase strawberry yield and improve fruit quality. So how do you effectively thin flowers and fruits? What is the reason for thinning flowers and fruits? Let's learn about it together.

1. Reasons for thinning strawberry flowers and fruits

Removing excess inflorescences and fruits from strawberries is a way of regulating nutrition during growth and development, because each strawberry inflorescence grows 10-40 small fruits. Within the same inflorescence, fruits of lower rank are larger, while fruits of higher rank are smaller. Large fruits can be more than 50 grams, while small ones are only 2-3 grams, causing the fruits to compete with each other for limited nutrients. Therefore, promptly thinning out some of the small and weak fruits can concentrate nutrients in the large fruits, enabling them to expand quickly, increasing yield and quality, and also improving the plant's air circulation and light penetration, reducing damage from pests and diseases.

2. Flower thinning

Each strawberry plant generally has two inflorescences, and each inflorescence has 6-30 flowers. The flowers that open first on the inflorescence produce larger fruits and mature earlier, while flowers that open later often fail to set fruit and become ineffective flowers. Even if they do set fruit, the fruit is small and has no commercial value. Therefore, during the flower bud separation stage, and no later than the opening of the first flower, the late and weak flower buds should be thinned out, generally removing 15%-20%. Flower thinning can reduce nutrient consumption, prompt nutrients to reach the earlier-opening flower buds in time, and make the fruits larger, more uniform, and earlier to mature.

3. Fruit thinning

Fruit thinning is carried out during the green stage of young fruits, that is, removing deformed fruits, pest-damaged and disease-damaged fruits, and thin, small fruits with weak fruit stalks from strawberries. For fields with higher planting density, it is advisable to keep 6-8 fruits per inflorescence and 12-16 fruits per strawberry plant. The number of fruits retained per strawberry plant is closely related to the strawberry variety, planting density, and soil fertility. For mid-to-late maturing varieties, as well as plots with higher soil fertility and vigorous plant growth, a suitably larger number of fruits can be retained, while for early-maturing varieties and plots with lower soil fertility, a suitably smaller number can be retained.

The above is an introduction to strawberry flower and fruit thinning techniques. We hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.