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Improving fruit set of 'Kordia' and 'Regina' sweet cherry with AVG
Citation
Bound, SA and Close, DC and Jones, JE and Whiting, MD, Improving fruit set of 'Kordia' and 'Regina' sweet cherry with AVG, Acta Horticulturae, 28 July- 1 August 2013, Orlando, United States of America, pp. 285-292. ISSN 0567-7572 (2014) [Refereed Conference Paper]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 International Society for Horticultural Science
Official URL: http://www.ishs.org/
DOI: doi:10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1042.34
Abstract
Sweet cherry cultivars require different management strategies depending on
whether they are prone to oversetting or have a tendency towards poor fruit set. The
aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of Retain® (15% a.i. (S)-trans-2-
amino-4-[2-aminoethoxy]-3-butenoic acid hydrochloride, AVG) for improving fruit set
on the difficult to set cultivars ‘Kordia’ and ‘Regina’ under Tasmanian conditions.
Trials were established in commercial orchards of ‘Kordia’ in 2011/12 and ‘Regina’ in
2012/13. To evaluate the impact of application time, whole-tree applications of AVG
were made separately by hydraulic hand lance at 30 and 80 percent bloom, or as a
double application at 30 and 80 percent bloom. On each application date, AVG was
applied at 75 or 112.5 g/ha to ‘Kordia’, and 75 or 150 g/ha to ‘Regina’. The surfactant
Maxx™ was added to the spray solution at the label rate of 0.5 ml/L in ‘Kordia’, no
surfactant was used in the ‘Regina’ orchard. AVG applications increased fruit set by
57 percent in ‘Kordia’ (from 9.7 to 15.3 %) and 33 percent in ‘Regina’ (from 23.1 to
30.7%), compared to untreated control trees. We found no significant differences
between the two application rates, nor was there any effect of application timing. In
the ‘Kordia’ orchard we recorded a significant (4.4%) reduction in fruit diameter in
the AVG-treated trees. The double application also reduced size by 3.7% compared
with a single application (P < 0.01). However fruit size was increased slightly (2%) by
the lower, but not the higher, rate of AVG in the ‘Regina’ trial (P < 0.001). AVG
reduced the incidence of rain-cracked fruit from 25% to 14% in the ‘Kordia’ orchard.
Fruit firmness in ‘Kordia’ was significantly higher in AVG treated fruit than the
control fruit (7%), but stem retention force was reduced by 16%. AVG had no effect
on fruit color. AVG treated trees had significantly less starch in trunk tissue, from the
time of pit hardening onwards, than control trees, implying that greater investment of
tree carbohydrate reserves was associated with the relatively high fruit set. This work
has demonstrated that AVG may be useful for improving fruit set (yield) in sweet
cherry cultivars that are chronically low-yielding. Further work is needed to
substantiate these results in different production regions and clarify the effect of AVG
on fruit firmness.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Conference Paper |
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Keywords: | Prunus avium, fruit quality, productivity |
Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
Research Group: | Horticultural production |
Research Field: | Horticultural crop growth and development |
Objective Division: | Plant Production and Plant Primary Products |
Objective Group: | Horticultural crops |
Objective Field: | Pome fruit, pip fruit |
UTAS Author: | Bound, SA (Dr Sally Bound) |
UTAS Author: | Close, DC (Professor Dugald Close) |
UTAS Author: | Jones, JE (Dr Joanna Jones) |
ID Code: | 94236 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 3 |
Deposited By: | Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture |
Deposited On: | 2014-09-03 |
Last Modified: | 2018-07-20 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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