Yield and Harvest Quality of Thinned Durian (Durio zibethinus Murray cv. ‘Puyat’)

Uniform flowering branches of 9 durian (cv. ‘Puyat’) trees aged 6 to 7 years old were tagged and then variously thinned (control, 25%, 50%) when the fruit were about 3 cm in diameter. The effect of fruit thinning on the yield and fruit quality was investigated. The fruit set, number of fruit harvested, total yield and percentage of misshapen fruit were not significantly affected by fruit thinning. Thinning to 50% tended to produce the least number of fruit set but produced the highest number of harvested fruit. Thinning at 25% and 50% both resulted in heavier fruit, greater pericarp weight, greater fruit circumference and longer fruit. The aril weight, seed weight and number of locules per fruit were similar in the 3 treatments. The 50% thinned trees produced fruit that dehisced a day later than the 2 other treatments, and these had the shortest length of fruit dehiscence, indicating slightly better shelf life under ambient conditions. In this study, fruit loss due to fruit drop was positively correlated(r=0.82; n=9) with rainfall during the period of study.