Royal Gala.The trees used were fifth leaf on Pajam 2 (a vigorous M.9 selection also known as
Cepiland), grown as central axis trees planted at 4m x 2m.

Three levels of crop loading treatments were used, 120 fruits per tree representing five fruits cm2
trunk cross-sectional area, 180 fruits per tree representing seven fruits cm2, and 240 fruits per
tree representing nine fruits cm2.Initial thinning was carried out 20 days after flowering and
final crop load treatments established 50 days after flowering.Relative to our cropping levels,
these crop loads were quite low so fruit size in all treatments was well above our average size
this year.The two lighter treatments both had around 90% of their fruit count 100 size and larger
and their heavy crop treatment about 70% of the fruit 100 count and larger.

Differences in time of maturity between the treatments were highly significant.The light crop
trees had 58% of their fruit ready for harvest at the time of the first main pick, medium crop trees
44% and the heavy crop trees only 27%.At the time of the first main pick, the percentage red
color was 75% for the light crop trees and only 55% for fruits of the heavy crop treatment.If
you are aiming for early market premiums, setting a low to moderate crop load early in the
growing season is very important.

REFERENCE
Regnard, J.L., J.J. Kelner, M. Dufour and G. Ferne.1997.Fruits and Legumes 150:26-27.