Peach fruit drop

In peaches, this trait directly influences harvest management. High fruit drop is considered a negative quality, as the fall of fruits leads to mechanical damage and loss of marketability. For varieties prone to this phenomenon, adhering to harvest schedules is critical, and a delay of even a few days in hot weather triggers mass fruit drop.

Unlike the general physiological shedding of ovaries, the drop of mature fruits is evaluated within the framework of state variety testing as a percentage of windfalls relative to the total crop mass. Breeding varieties with firm fruit attachment allows for the optimization of logistics and a reduction in the number of selective harvests; however, for peaches, the issue is often not so much fruit drop as it is the difficulty of detachment during harvesting or the necessity of timely picking to prevent quality loss.