ISHS Acta Horticulturae 455: V International Mango Symposium
SUMMER PROMOTION OF VEGETATIVE SHOOTS TO INCREASE EARLY FLOWERING RESPONSE OF MANGO TREES TO AMMONIUM NITRATE SPRAYS |
| Authors: | Victor M. Medina-Urrutia, R. Nuñez-Elisea |
| Abstract:
Cultural treatments were tested to promote Summer production of vegetative shoots in mango for increasing early bloom with ammonium nitrate sprays applied during the Fall. Two experiments were conducted. The first one included “Haden” and “Tommy Atkins” trees and consisted of the following four treatments: pruning of terminal shoots (PTS), pruning plus a foliar paclobutrazol spray at 4,000 ppm (PTS + PBZ); gibberellic acid spray at 25 ppm (GAS), and a non-treated control. PTS produced more Summer vegetative shoots (1.38 shoots/terminal) than GAS (0.94 shoots/terminal) or the control (0.99 shoots/terminal) trees. “Haden” and “Tommy Atkins” trees responded similarly to vegetative shoot-promoting treatments. “Haden” trees produced 68% of total bloom in January, whereas 70% of the total bloom in “Tommy Atkins” trees was produced in March. Although early Summer flushing was significantly promoted by pruning in this experiment, early flowering was discouraged by untimely rains in November, during ammonium nitrate spraying. The second experiment was done in “Haden” trees only and consisted of the following six treatments: PTS; PTS plus an application of paclobutrazol soil drench at 7.5 g per tree (PTS + PBZ); PTS plus water stress; elimination of the inflorescence axis (EIA); PBZ soil drench alone; partial control-1, consisted of an ammonium nitrate spray only (ANS) and control-2 (NC). Trees subjected to PTS, PTS + PBZ, and EIA doubled production of vegetative shoots in relation to the non-treated control-2. PTS and EIA increased early flowering by 16% and 51%, respectively, as compared to control-1. The greatest early flowering in this study was obtained in “Haden” trees when a PBZ soil drench was applied alone or combined with Summer pruning. Effects of treatments on yield and fruit quality are discussed. | |
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