Augmenting the production and quality of Kiwifruit var. Allison through manual thinning and pruning

On well pollinated seven years old kiwifruit vines var. Allison, different hand thinning severities of fruitlets were executed under the Sub-tropical mid hill conditions. Among the different hand thinning treatments, thinning to retain two fruits and four fruits per fruiting shoot with regular winter pruning exhibited significantly higher fruit size of length (7.21 ± 0.02 cm, 7.13 ± 0.11 cm), breadth (5.35 ± 0.06 cm, 5.24 ± 0.09 cm) and average fruit weight (83.69 ± 1.44 g, 82.37 ± 0.53 cm). The fruit number per vine and total yield declined with an increase in the severity of thinning, whereas the control treatment (no thinning and pruning) exhibited the highest fruit number per vine (457.65 ± 1.09) and total yield (31.94 ± 1.47 kg). Though the maximum production was observed in control yet the yield of grade ‘A’ fruit was the least (8.88 ± 0.91 kg) resulting in the lowest net profit (Rs. 1240 per vine). Manual thinning by retaining six fruits per fruiting shoot yielded optimum thinning and the highest production of ‘A’ grade fruits (23.48 ± 2.62 kg) with the highest net profit (Rs. 2290 per vine) over other treatments. The experiment also vividly revealed that TSS, sugars, ascorbic acid content as well as pigments viz. likes total chlorophyll and carotenoids of fruits increased as the intensity of thinning was augmented.