MELISSA HANSEN Dr. Duane Greene at the University of Massachusetts is exploring new thinning strategies that can be used with existing thinning products. NAA (naphthalene acetic acid), one of the oldest thinning materials around, is usually used postbloom, when fruitlets are about ten millimeters in diameter, but Greene said it can be used at petal fall at higher rates—perhaps twice the dose. Greene defines petal fall as immediately after the bees are out of the orchard and you can get a sprayer in. Amid-Thin, or NAD (naphthaleneacetamide), is also an old compound. It is widely used in the West but […]