Effect of Foliar Application With some Micronutrients on ‘Florida Prince’ Cultivar Peach Tree

Abstract

This study was carried out during the two successive seasons 2015 and 2016 on five years old ‘Florida prince’ peach trees (Prunus persica L.) budded on ‘Nemagard’ peach rootstock, grown in sandy soil under drip irrigation system in a private orchard located at El-Nubaria region, El-Behira Governorate, Egypt. The aims of this research was to investigate the effect of some micronutrients foliar as Boric acid (H3BO3), Zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) and Fe-EDTA on yield, fruit quality and elemental composition of ‘Florida prince’ peach trees. The followed experimental design was randomized complete block design with five replicates. Results indicated that all the foliar application treatments, significantly increased the yield (kg /tree) and fruit weight (g) as compared with control. The highest yield and fruit weight were recorded with 0.2% Fe-EDTA foliar application treatment (99.85 and 104.40 kg/tree, for two seasons) as compared with the control (36.87 and 37.38 kg/tree, respectively). Moreover, all Boric acid, Zinc sulphate and Fe-EDTA foliar treatments increased length (cm), diameter (cm), firmness (Ib/inch2), total soluble solids (%), acidity (%), and total sugars (%) as compared with control ones during both seasons. On the other hand, A gradual elemental increases in Boron, Iron and Zinc in leaves (%) were recorded with the micronutrient treatments as compared with the control plants.