Effect of different pruning levels on fruit yield and quality of promising peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] cultivars

Pruning plays an important role in growth and productivity of temperate fruits in general and peach in particular. To study the response of various pruning severity on yield and physico-chemical traits, five pruning intensities, viz., Control (no pruning), 10%, 25%, 50% and 75% pruning levels of current season's growth were excised with 3 replications on three cultivars i.e. ‘Red June’, ‘Elberta’ and ‘Early White Giant’ in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) during 2009–10 and 2010–11. As the severity in pruning was increased, the physico-chemical traits like fruit weight, volume, size, pulp weight, stone weight, stone: pulp ratio, T.S.S., acidity and sugar contents were increased. There was also a decreasing pattern in yield and acidity which decreased according to the increase in the pruning intensity.