Regulation of Fruiting In Plum Production

Abstract

This short overview article describes different strategies to adjust crop loads in plums in order to get regular cropping, improve fruit size and fruit quality. There are three principal methods of regulating the crop loads of plum, which can be combined: numbers of flowers on the tree can be reduced, flowers can be prevented from fruit setting and the amount of fruitlets can be reduced by thinning methods. The methods of achieving these strategies, by manual, mechanical and chemical means are described and discussed.