Abstract
Almond production in hot climate areas of Mexico uses low-chilling cultivars. One problem in young almond trees is that timely leaf drop does not occur; therefore, budbreak is late and uneven. With the objective of chemical defoliation, foliar applications of different compounds [urea (5%), ZnSO4 (5%), CuSO4 (5%), NH4NO3 (5%), ZnSO4 (2.5%) + urea (1.5%)], hand defoliation, and a nondefoliation control were made on `R-633' young almond trees (2 years old). The percent defoliation was high (77% to 86%) after 6 days of the application in the majority of treatments, except for NH4NO3 (5%), urea (5%), and the control; but 3 days later, all treatments showed >80% defoliation. Nondefoliated trees had an uneven budbreak and occurred 3 and 6 days later. The yield was greater for ZnSO4, with 435 g/tree and only 55.6 g/tree for the control. Fruit quality was the same for all treatments. No injury to branches were observed with any compounds.
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