THE INFLUENCE OF TIME AND FRUITLET INTERSPACE THINNING ON YIELD AND FRUIT QUALITY OF PEACH AND NECTARINE GROWN IN MONTENEGRO

The study results over a three year period (2007-2009) on three cultivars of peach and nectarine (Early Crest, May Crest, Springbelle, Adriana, Rita Star and Caldesi 2000) has been presented in the paper. The study includes: time of flowering, pollen germination percentage, the percentage of fruit set, interspaces and time of fruit thinning and their influence on fruit weight and total yield of the examined cultivars. The study found a high percentage of fruit set especially in cv. May Crest (86.60%) and the lowest was in cv. Springbelle (80.51%). Interspace thinning of 5.0 cm gave the highest average of fruit weight (119.0 g) in cv. Caldesi 2000 and the lowest (54.3 g) in cv. Early Crest. At a distance of 10 cm interspace thinning the highest fruit weight was again in cv. Caldesi 2000 (141.0) and the lowest in cv. Early Crest (59.3 g). Our research shows that the most favorable period for thinning of peaches in our agroecological conditions is at the end of April, when the initial fruit weight is 3-5 g.