Anna Wallis, Jon Clements, Mario Miranda Sazo, Craig Kahlke, Karen Lewis, Tom Kon, Luis Gonzalez, Yu Jiang and Terence Robinson
Reprinted from Fruit Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 1, Spring 2023
Decades of work have demonstrated that PACMAN (Precision Apple Crop load MANagement) is an extremely effective method for successfully managing crop load. Effective crop load management has a direct effect on yield, quality, size, and return bloom, and ultimately an orchard’s profitability. The process involves three management practices: 1) pruning, 2) chemical thinning, and 3) hand thinning, which have been described in detail in previous articles (Robinson et al., 2014a,b). We are continuing to refine recommendations for PACMAN, on a regional basis, as part of a 4-year national project, funded by the USDA-NIFA SCRI. This article is a follow-up to our previous article summarizing earlier work on this project (Robinson et al., 2022).
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