Effect of removing the spring flush and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization on the late ripening of cactus pear Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill

Abstract

The present work aims to study the effect of removing the spring flush (scozzolatura practice) and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization on fruit yield and quality of the late fruiting of cactus pear Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. To meet this objective, an experiment was carried out on an adult plantation of ‘Aissa’ cv in the Agadir area. Treatments of fertilization used are: T0 (not fertilized plot: contains only the soil reserve in NP: 40-20 kg N-P ha-1), T1: 226 kg N ha-1, T2: 114 kg P2O5 ha-1 and T3: 226-114 kg N-P2O5 ha-1. The whole spring flush was removed during the full flowering stage (50% flowers in bloom); it was practiced on April 20, 2019. Obtained results showed that removing the spring flush led to a second flush of flowering (reflowering) 46 days after the spring flowering and an off-season late fruiting 68 days after the seasonal fruiting. The scozzolatura practice also has improved the fruit size and taste and its content in sugars, and reduced the number of seeds per fruit. Nitrogenous and phosphor-nitrogenous fertilizations improved the emission of shoots and flowers, fruit yield and size of scozzolatured and not scozzolaturated plants and their effect is more important on scozzolatured plants than on not scoscozzolatured ones. However, phosphorous fertilization alone does not affect these phenological and yield parameters and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizations have no effect on the organoleptic parameters of the fruits (the rate of juice and sugars and the pH and acidity titratable of the juice).