FMR FRUIT TEC DARWIN BLOSSOM THINNER

Improvements in fruit size and quality by increasing early sugar alloaction to a smaller number of fruit has driven an increase in blossom thinning, however both chemical and manual thinning techniques are expensive while delliver inconsistent results. 

Mechanical thinning with Darwin is safer and can be more effective and less costly than thinning with chemical substances. It is also quicker and less labor intensive than manual thinning.

Your benefits

•  controlled thinning that you can see immediately
• thins without chemical use
• fast travel speed for maximum efficiency
• can be used in all weather conditions

The chemicals used to thin pome fruit are costly, and the success of the thinning depends very much upon weather conditions, the ambient temperature and many other unpredictable factors. A second round of chemical thinning is often necessary and is usually followed thereafter by manual thinning. There are currently no reliable chemical thinning techniques used in stone fruit.

With Darwin you can see your thinning results immediately. You can adjust the level of thinning achieved the first time through the orchard to best fit your production goals. The effect of crop rotation is eliminated, which is very difficult when using chemical solutions because of the very early thinning period.

Then again, thinning by hand doesn’t achieve the same fruit quality and it also leads to constant, high costs. In addition, it is increasingly difficult to find suitable workers for these tasks.

While results will vary based on orchard design and operator competence, research done by PSU suggests that when properly thinning with Darwin, there is never a negative return on the investment. The Darwin always works on a profitable basis. The machine is attached to the front hydraulic
system of the tractor or to the coupling mouth by means of an expander, if the tractor does not possess front hydraulic system. The hydraulic
adjustment of the spindle inclination allows the adaptation to the tree form or to the ground.

The tractor drives closely along the tree rows with the front-mounted spindle directly in the canopy of the tree, and will indiscriminately remove random buds, flower clusters, or individual blooms – leaving behind your desired amount of flowers to set fruit.
Darwin was developed from practical experience and in its almost 20 years of evolution has constantly been optimized and adapted to our customers’ requirements. So today you can benefit from a patented, mature system that can help you to produce quality harvests with reduced labor costs and minimized environmental impact year after year!

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