Valent Rolls Out Plant Growth Regulators For NW Tree Fruit Growers

Valent U.S.A recently announced the availability of anew tool to chemically thin tree fruit, for effective crop load management. Kevin Forney with Valent said Accede is a completely new and unique concept for stone fruit across the Pacific Northwest.

“There are currently no chemical thinners available for use in stone fruits, so we’re really excited about it.  Accede is applied at the bloom timing in stone fruit so anywhere from 18 bud stage to petal fall.  Based on a lot of work that we’ve done, we try to target that full bloom timing so, any where from 50%-100% bloom is where we’ve seen our best results.”

He added Accede is also a great option for apple growers, expanding the chemical thinning window allowing for “late thinning” when kind fruit is sized 15-20 millimeters. Forney noted that a recent study from Cornell University found Accede has higher efficacy when fruitlets were 18 millimeters in size, compared to 10 millimeters.

“We’ve done a lot of testing both at the University level as well as with contact researchers, and a lot of that work has been done with Cornell, as well as Penn State, Michigan State University.  So, it’s been tested pretty extensively over the past few years at various universities.”

Visit Valent's Website to learn more about Accede.