8 JULY 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com
A
traditional Darwin string thinner works
just fi ne on fruit trees trellised or hedged
in fl at, fl owering walls. But the trees sup-
plying California's canned peach industry
don't always grow that way, and few grow-
ers can afford to up and replant their entire orchard at
once.
So, Frank Bavaro, a mechanically handy cling peach
grower in the Central Valley, rebuilt a Darwin instead.
Using the Darwin's hydraulic motors and orbital
spinning shafts, Bavaro made two modifi cations: He
mounted the thinners horizontally on a high post to
break up the clusters on the tops of trees, and mounted
one vertically onto a pivoting arm that allows a worker to
swing the strings in and out of the canopy to follow the
contours of the branches. He considers the modifi cations
easy and cheap.
California cling peach
grower modifi es Darwin
for nonplanar orchards.
by Ross Courtney
Summer Fruits
Reinventing
the string thinner
