The Thinning of Plum Trees in the Context of the Third Millennium

In the context of the sustainable agriculture, where global technology has reached amazing peaks,the necessity to satisfy the human needs is directly proportional to the human’s development and also tothe development of the environment in which people live. One of the main problems to which humankindis faceing now and will certainly be confronted in the future concerns the increase of the production,meant to supply for the people’s increasing food needs. The load of fruit is the ratio between the numberof leaves and the number of fruits on a tree. The thinning of the fruit load is essential in the case of theplum tree and it can be differently carried out. The removal of the excess fruit can be done in three stages:in the bud stage, by cuts, in the blossom stage, by chemical treatements and in the period when the fruitsstart to grow, through chemical treatements or through hand-thinning. Thinning the fruits applies inthe years when the trees have a high quantity of fruit, which disrupts the physiologic equilibrium of thetrees. The intensity of the thinning depends on the species, variety/cultivar and vigour of the tree, on thephenophase in which it is done, the type of solution, the concentration, the dose used; it also depends onhow the treatement is applied and the values of the ecological factors during and after the treatement.