What are the correct methods for thinning walnut fruit?
How should walnut fruit be thinned properly? Please explain. Scientific fruit thinning of walnuts not only benefits the development of the tree in the current year, saves a large amount of nutrients and water, and improves the nut yield and quality of that year, but also benefits the growth of new shoots and ensures the yield of the following year. It is a major technical measure for improving walnut yield and quality...
How should walnut fruit be thinned properly? Please explain
Scientific fruit thinning of walnuts not only benefits the development of the tree in the current year, saves a large amount of nutrients and water, and improves the nut yield and quality of that year, but also benefits the growth of new shoots and ensures the yield of the following year. It is a major technical measure for improving walnut yield and quality. The specific methods are:
1. Benefits of fruit thinning. Precocious walnut trees bear fruit mainly on lateral flower buds and produce a relatively large number of female flowers. After entering the full bearing period, in order to ensure a relative balance between vegetative growth and reproductive growth of the tree and maintain high quality, high and stable yield, excess young fruit must be thinned. Otherwise, too much fruit set will cause walnut fruits to become smaller and quality to decline, and in severe cases lead to weakened tree vigor, massive dieback of branches, and even death.
2. Timing of fruit thinning. It can be done after physiological fruit drop, generally 20~30 days after fertilization of the female flowers, that is, when the ovary has developed to 1~1.5 cm.
3. Appropriate fruit retention. The number of fruits retained should depend on tree vigor and cultivation conditions. Generally, retaining 60~100 fruits per sq m of tree canopy projection area is appropriate.
4. Fruit thinning methods. Fruit thinning is limited to precocious walnut varieties with a high fruit-setting rate. When thinning fruit, first remove young fruits on weak trees or thin, weak branches. They can also be cut off together with the weak branches. When each inflorescence has more than 3 young fruits, 2~3 can be retained depending on the strength of the bearing branch. The fruit-bearing positions should be evenly distributed within the canopy, and more can be thinned in the shaded inner canopy.
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