Studies on the induction of flowering in juvenilePrunus aviumL.

Abstract

Juvenile Prunus avium shoot apices produced flowering shoots after grafting to mature trees irrespective of treatment of the apices in the season before grafting with G A or G A + cytokinin. Scions grown from mature shoot apices grafted to seedling stocks failed to flower, again irrespective of prior hormone treatment. Similar treatment of mature shoot apices with these hormones, or with zeatin, inhibited concurrent floral initiation, but G A or GA + zeatin treatments increased flowering of scions grown from the treated apices after grafting to untreated mature trees. Localized shoot tip or root drench treatment of one or two year old seedlings with (2RS, 3RS)-paclobutrazol failed to induce flowering, but treatment of three or four year old plants did stimulate flowering. Branch or stem girdling or root flooding applied alone or in combination to three year old plants did not affect flowering. Floral initiation by three or four year old plants was inhibited by treatment with GAs. The results were consiste...