Effect of foliar spraying of TOTALGRO and GA3 on the growth and yield of Apple Malus domestica cvs. Sharabi and Anna 2- Yield characteristics

Abstract

This experiment was conducted at a private apple orchard located at Alfallujah province of Anbar during the growing seasons of 2009 and 2010 to find out the responses of Sharabi and Anna apple cultivars to foliar application of nutrient solution (TOTALGRO) and GA3 and their interactions . Treatments includes spraying nutrient solution (T) with five levels of without spray (T1) , (20-20-20) (T2) , (30-12-8) )T3( , (10-52-10) (T4) and (12-12-36) (T5) and spraying GA3 (G) with four levels 0 )G1 (, 50 (G2) ,100 (G3) and 150 (G4) mg /l . Each treatment replicated three times with a factorial experiment with RCBD. The number of trees used was 60 trees. The experimental results showed that treatment (T2G2) significantly gave the highest fruit weight of 42.73 and 43.92 g in cv. Sharabi and 111.23 and 121.36 g in cv. Anna and the highest yield per tree of 42.89 and 43.88 kg in cv. Sharabi and 40.81 and 41.45 kg in cv. Anna and the lowest total fruit acidity 0.471 and 0.446% in cv. Sharabi and 0.392 and 0.419% in cv. Anna for the two seasons, respectively. The lowest value of these parameters found in the control (T1G1) treatment , the highest total sugar of 6.14 and 6.37 % in cv. Sharabi and 8.33 and 8.61% in cv. Anna . the TSS does not influenced by these treatments .