University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agents Jake Price and Sydni Ingram recently shared information about UGA satsuma pruning and thinning trials. An edited version of their Cold Hardy Citrus Connection article follows:
The percentage of cull fruit in satsumas is very high due to the fruit being too soft, too green or too big. Satsumas are very cold hardy, delicious, seedless and easy to peel, but they are not the best commercial fruit. Ways to decrease the amount of cull fruit are needed, but there is little information on production practices for satsumas.
Some trees produce better fruit than others. At UGA research plots, the fruit will vary from year to year on the same tree. Minimal pruning has been done just to remove lower limbs and long gangly branches. In general, interior fruit seems to be better than fruit on the outer portions of the tree.
Experience with drastically pruning a backyard satsuma tree resulted in the 9-year-old tree producing its best fruit ever, leading to the question: Should satsumas be pruned aggressively? Tripti Vashisth with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) was contacted about that question. She gave her PhD student and UGA’s newly hired citrus specialist, Mary Sutton, the issue as a project.
Sutton designed a protocol to compare fruit from pruned and non-pruned trees. In addition, she provided a protocol for a thinning trial being conducted in Thomasville.
PRUNING TRIAL
The pruning trial consists of six Owari satsuma trees on X-639 rootstock. Approximately 50% of the canopy was removed from three of these trees before bloom and none from the other three trees.
Each tree is the same age, and fruit yield from last year was almost identical on the pruned and unpruned trees. Canopy volume is being monitored. Interior fruit are being tagged to compare to exterior fruit on each of the trees. Fruit quality and yield of the pruned and unpruned trees will be compared.
THINNING TRIAL
The thinning trial consists of six mature Owari satsuma trees on Rich 16-6 rootstock. Fruit have been removed from three trees so that the remaining fruit are at least 2 inches apart. Large clusters of fruit take longer to turn orange compared to fruit with some space between them.
Interior and exterior fruit on these trees have been tagged and will be evaluated for quality from thinned and unthinned trees. The goal is to develop some pruning and thinning strategies for satsumas.
Source: UF/IFAS
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