Apple Cv Research Articles

Effect of leaf to fruit ratio on growth, yield and quality of custard apple cv. GJCA-1

Effect of leaf to fruit ratio on growth, yield and quality of custard apple cv. GJCA-1

Impact of plant nutrients and organic substances on growth, yield, and quality attributes of Anna apple cultivar under semi-arid conditions

The unique challenges posed by semi-arid climates, including soil nutrient limitations and organic matter decline, underscore the importance of effective nutrient and organic substance management to ensure optimal yields, quality, and environmental sustainability. A field experiment was conducted at Horticulture Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during two succeeding years, 2020–21 and 2021–22, to identify optimal nutrient management strategies of different plant nutrients and organic substances on growth, flowering, quality, and yield attributes of the “Anna” apple cultivar. The experiment consisted of nineteen treatments in an RBD system. The plant growth parameters [leaf area (33.64 cm2) and trunk girth (13.16 cm)] when applied 2.0% Urea (N) + 15% Cow urine-T12. Whereas, the number of flower buds (232.83/m2) and flowering duration (39.00 days) were found better with T6. Similarly, [fruit volume (158.95 cm3), number of fruit (63.33/tree) and fruit drop (70.54%)] and [TSS: acid ratio (22.60), reducing sugars (7.17%), non-reducing sugars (2.83%), total protein (0.97 g 100 g−1), starch index (3.59)] were superior with the application of treatment T6. Higher content of boron (80.09 ppm) was estimated in treatment T6, zinc (24.69 ppm) in T9, iron (134.67 ppm) in T1, and manganese (59.94 ppm) in T12 during the experimentation. Therefore, it was concluded that treatment T12 was most effective for enhancing plant growth while treatment T6 was found superior for flowering, high yield, and quality of apple cv. Anna fruit under semi-arid conditions.

Effect of gamma radiation on percent survival, lethality percentage of axillary buds of apple cv Ambri and determination of Lethal Dose (LD50)

Effect of gamma radiation on percent survival, lethality percentage of axillary buds of apple cv Ambri and determination of Lethal Dose (LD50)

Edible Oil-Based Coatings Preserve Quality of Organic Apple cv. ‘Golden Delicious’ during Storage

Edible Oil-Based Coatings Preserve Quality of Organic Apple cv. ‘Golden Delicious’ during Storage

Drought-Stressed Apple Tree Grafted onto Different Rootstocks in a Coastal Sandy Soil: Link between Fast Chlorophyll a Fluorescence and Production Yield

Domesticated apple is a drought-sensitive species that spread from continental to Mediterranean temperate regions, where it can particularly experience prolonged water stress. One strategy to improve drought resistance in apple is engrafting on selected rootstocks. This study explores the potential of fast chlorophyll a fluorescence for the comparison of rootstock sensitivity to drought, looking for significant correlations with fruit productivity. The experiment was conducted in a field located in the coastal Po River Plain, Northern Italy, characterized by a loamy sandy soil, particularly prone to drought (86% sand). Mature plants of apple cv. Superchief® Sandidge engrafted on three different rootstocks (CIVP21pbr, MM106, M26) were monitored throughout the summer of 2021 and compared between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels, and at the end of the season, fruit production was evaluated. Despite soil water tension only reaching −13 kPa, the non-irrigated plants experienced a small but consistent loss of Photosystem II (PSII) activity and a lesser capacity of light energy conservation in the photosynthetic electron transport chain. The fruit weight correlated with PSII photochemical indexes recorded during early drought, particularly FV/FM and PIABS; a correlation emerged between fruit number per plant and median values of electron transport parameters, including PITOT. Although all rootstocks underwent a 40% loss of productivity, the fluorescence parameters revealed a graded susceptibility to drought, M26 > CIVP21pbr > MM106, which matched well with the plant vigour. The least drought-sensitive MM106 produced less numerous but heavier fruits than the other two rootstocks.

Effect of Foliar Sprays of Phenylalanine, Nano-potash and Potassium Sulphate on Fruit Quality Attributes of Apple (Malus x domestica Borkh) cv. Ambri

The present investigation was carried out at Experimental field of Ambri Apple Research Centre (AARC), Shopian, SKUAST-Kashmir, during the year 2022-2023. Eight treatments, viz; control (water spray), potassium sulphate (5 g per litre of water), phenylalanine (@ 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%), nano-potash (@ 1, 2 and 3ml/l of water) were selected for colour improvement. The treatments were applied 30 days prior to harvest. The experiment was laid in complete randomised block design with 3 replications having 3 trees per replication. The results showed that all the treatments outperformed control in terms of chemical characteristics. The treatment T4 (Phenylalanine @ 0.3%) significantly excelled in all the treatments applied. Significantly higher anthocyanin content (14.41 mg/100g), antioxidants (75.71 %), total sugars (12.98 %), TSS (16.23 %), fruit chlorophyll (0.59 mg/g fw) and fruit ascorbic acid (23.93 %) was recorded in T4 (Phenylalanine @ 0.3%) as compared to other treatments. According to the current study, apple cultivar Ambri responded favourably to the application of foliar phenylalanine in improving chemical traits, which otherwise lacks in this cultivar. The application of Phe @ 0.3% , 30 days prior to harvest proved superior in enhancing the quality attributes, notably the anthocyanin content of apple cv. Ambri.

The Contribution of Azospirillum brasilense and Vermicompost to Improving Plant Growth Characteristics, Yield Variables, Physical Characteristics and Maintaining Sustainable Agriculture in Custard Apple cv. “Balanagar”

The Contribution of Azospirillum brasilense and Vermicompost to Improving Plant Growth Characteristics, Yield Variables, Physical Characteristics and Maintaining Sustainable Agriculture in Custard Apple cv. “Balanagar”

Apple crown and collar canker and necrosis caused by Cytospora balanejica sp. nov. in Iran

Apple is the most important fruit tree in West Azarbaijan province of Iran. In a survey of apple orchards, a disease with crown and collar canker and necrosis symptoms was observed in three young apple orchards in Urmia, affecting 15% and 1% of ‘Red Delicious’ and ‘Golden Delicious’ cultivars, respectively. A fungus with typical characteristics of the asexual morph of Cytospora was regularly isolated from the diseased tissues. Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses inferred from the combined dataset of the ITS-rDNA, parts of LSU, tef1-α, rpb2, and act1 genes revealed that the isolates represent a new species of Cytospora, described herein as Cytospora balanejica sp. nov.. The pathogenicity of all isolates was confirmed on apple cv. ‘Red Delicious’ based on Koch’s postulates. Also, the reaction of 12 other apple cultivars was assessed against five selected isolates with the highest virulence. The results showed that except for cv. ‘Braeburn’, which did not produce any symptoms of the disease, the other 11 cultivars showed characteristic disease symptoms including sunken and discolored bark and wood. The mean length of the discolored area was different among the 11 so-called susceptible cultivars, hence cvs. ‘M4’ and ‘Golden Delicious’ showed the highest and the lowest lesion length, respectively. Moreover, the aggressiveness of the five tested isolates was different, and the isolates BA 2-4 and BA 3-1 had the highest and lowest aggressiveness, respectively. Based on our observations on the potential ability of the fungus to cause disease on young and actively growing apple trees, it will be a serious threat to apple cultivation and industry.

Effect of nutrients and organic substances on growth and quality attributes of apple (<i>Malus × domestica</i>) cv. Anna insemi-arid region of Haryana

An experiment was conducted during 2020–21 and 2021–22 at Horticulture farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana to study the effect of different plant nutrients and organic substances on growth, flowering, quality and yield attributes of the apple (Malus × domestica Borkh) cultivar Anna. The experiment consists of 19 treatments laid out in a randomized block design. Among the various treatments used, T12 (2.0% nitrogen plus 15% cow urine) was found superior for the growth characteristics of plants, viz. plant height (2.87 m) and plant spread (3.02 m). However, the number of days taken for flowering (70.83), fruit set (19.72 %), fruit weight (177.68 g), fruit diameter (6.40 cm), yield (11.25 kg/plant), TSS (11.45 °Brix), acidity (0.51%), total sugars (10.01%), total phenol (70.72 mg GAE/g), total anthocyanin (19.11 mg/100 g) and total carbohydrate (155.55 mg/g) content were significantly influenced by treatment T6 (400 ppm Boron + 4% Humic acid) during both the years.

Effect of crop load on leaf and fruit nutrient status in apple cv. Gala Redlum

Effect of crop load on leaf and fruit nutrient status in apple cv. Gala Redlum

Effectiveness of colour improving sprays on physical characteristics of apple (Malus x domestica Borkh) cv. Ambri

Effectiveness of colour improving sprays on physical characteristics of apple (Malus x domestica Borkh) cv. Ambri

Effect of foliar application of nano urea on growth and yield of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) CV. GJCA-1

Effect of foliar application of nano urea on growth and yield of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) CV. GJCA-1

Pollination and fruit set of the Protected Designation of Origin apple cv. ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’ depends on insect pollinators

Summary Insect dependency of apple crop for pollination vary in different cultivars. The cv. ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’, is a Protected Designation of Origin apple of Greece, which lacks information on self-compatibility and needs for insect pollination for commercial fruit production. Here, the effect of wind, free (wind and insects), honeybee, free with at least one visit from a bumblebee and hand pollination was examined on fruit set and fruit characteristics. Also, the effect of flowering patches as a practice to attract pollinators in the apple orchards, on fruit quality characteristics was studied. A pollinizer apple variety and insect pollinators are necessary for successful pollination of ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’ since hand pollination with pollen of the same cv., and wind pollination resulted in very low fruit set. Single flower visits by honeybees could give fruit set, however, free pollination with at least one visit of B. terrestris resulted in higher fruit set compared to the other pollination treatments. Free pollination resulted in more fruits with higher number of seeds than wind pollination (only one fruit obtained). Apples produced from flowers adjacent to the flowering mixture patches had significantly higher skin firmness and lower total soluble solids at harvest (both desirable traits for ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’), compared to fruits from trees in naturally occurring groundcover.

Effectiveness of Phosphorous acid, Bacillus subtilis and Copper Compounds on Apple cv. Gala with M9 Rootstock in the Control of Fire Blight

Necrogenic Gram-negative bacterium Erwinia amylovora, which causes economic losses especially in pome fruits such as apple, pear, quince and loquat, some berries and many ornamental plants, causes fire blight disease. Copper compounds are used extensively in disease control programs and they can cause toxicproblems in terms of plant and environmental health. In addition, the formation of resistance to copper in the pathogen is frequently observed. In this study, plant activator phosphorous acid and biological control agent Bacillus subtilis, and 3 different copper compounds, Copper sulfate, Copper oxychloride and Copper hydroxide which are commonly used against E. amylovora, on apple cv. Gala with M9 rootstock were evaluated comparatively. When the new season shoot lengths of 3-year-old plants with homogeneous growth reached 20-25 cm, chemicals and B. subtilis were applied first time before one week ago from the pathogen inoculation, and after 2 times with 1 week intervals. The youngest two leaves at tips of actively growing terminal plant shoots were inoculated by cutting off using scissors dipped in suspension of E. amylovora str. EaARADY5 containing 108 CFU ml-1. Disease assessments were made after the disease severity (%) was determined on the basis of shoot blight after symptom development of the disease stopped, and the results were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). According to the findings, while the highest effect was obtained by copper oxychloride with 69% effectiveness among all applications, the lowest effectiveness was obtained with 43.5% copper sulfate. It has been revealed that the use of the most effective of the copper compounds in field applications will result in less exposure to chemicals in terms of human and environmental health, and that B. subtilis and phosphorous acid can be used significantly in the integrated control of fire blight.

Effect of Growth Regulators on the Quality of Apple Tree Whorls

High-quality nursery stock ensures the dynamic development of orchard crops. The most desirable by orchardists is a tree with a strongly developed crown, which makes it possible to shorten the investment period of newly planted orchards. The quality of the perianth and the degree of its branching depend on the growth strength of the rootstock, the ability of a given variety to form lateral shoots, the type and effectiveness of the treatments used to stimulate branching, soil and climatic conditions related to the location of the nursery and the course of the weather during the period of initiation and growth of young shoots. The study was conducted in 2017–2019 at a private nursery farm near Lublin. The aim of the experiment was to study the effect of mixtures based on the compounds benzyladenine (BA) and gibberellins (GA3) and (GA4+7) for chemical stimulation of lateral shoot outgrowth in apple cv. ‘Alwa’ and ‘Najdared’. In the course of the research, significant effects of the type of growth regulations used and the variety on the height of the perianths, the number and length of lateral shoots and the degree of branching were demonstrated.

The Effect of Canopy Position on the Fruit Quality Parameters and Contents of Bioactive Compounds and Minerals in ‘Braeburn’ Apples

This study attempts to clarify the effect of canopy position on the physico-chemical parameters of apples cv. Braeburn. The experiments were carried out on fruit from the inner and outer part of the canopy in two growing seasons and at two harvest dates. Light measurements revealed that the average value of photo active radiation (PAR) for the inside and outside canopy amounted to 30.3 μmol/m2/s and 133.7 μmol/m2/s, respectively. Production year and canopy position significantly influenced ground color parameters a*, b*, C*, and h°, while the harvest date influenced all color parameters studied. For additional (red blush) coloration, the production year significantly influenced only the L* parameter, harvest date influenced all color parameters, and canopy position influenced L, a*, and C*. Only the fruits of the second harvest date showed more intense additional (red blush) coloration. The production year significantly affected fruit mass, firmness, total soluble solids (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), SSC/TA ratio, DPPH radical scavenging assay (AOP), total phenolic content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC). The harvest date significantly influenced fruit mass, SSC, TA, SSC/TA, AOP, TPC, and TFC. The canopy position significantly influenced SSC, TA, AOP, TPC, and TFC. Regarding mineral content, the production year significantly affected the content of Fe, Ni, Cu, and Ca and the K/Ca ratio. The harvest date significantly affected Fe, Cu, Sr, K and K/Ca. The canopy position affected Fe, Ni, Zn, Sr, Ca, and K/Ca ratio, with a clear significant trend regarding the effect of canopy position only for Ca content (first and second year of the second harvest date) and K/Ca ratio (first year of both harvest dates). PCA analyses identified distinguishing features between apples, with differences defined specifically by AOP, TPC, TFC, Rb, Sr, Ca, and K/Ca on the PC 1 and Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn on PC 2.

The effect of seaweed foliar application on yield and quality of apple cv. ‘Golden Delicious’

Apple is one of the most important horticultural products, and the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of foliar application of seaweed extract on the yield, physiological traits, and concentrations of some elements in apple cv. ‘Golden Delicious’. The experiment was performed as a randomized complete block design with 5 replications in an orchard of Semirom. Treatments were included 2 extracts of seaweed Seafer-100 (800 and 1,200 mL/1000 L) and Macys BC28 (2,000 and 2,500 mL/1000 L) as well as control (spraying distilled water). In this study, we measured traits including yield characteristics (yield/tree and hectare, fruit weight, firmness, and diameter), physiological traits (titratable acidity, soluble solids content, ascorbic acid, proline, phenol, soluble sugars concentration, chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, peroxidases, ascorbate peroxidases, catalases, proteins, and relative leaf-water content), and elements (N, P, K, Zn, Fe, Mg, and Cu). The general results showed that the application of seaweed extract lead to a significant increase in most of the studied traits compared to the non-application of this treatment. This means that by increasing the concentration of both seaweed extracts, yield characteristics, most of the physiological traits, and some elements increased significantly. After the use of seaweed extract, the concentration of N, Fe, and P, chlorophyll a and b, relative water content, fruit size, and yield increased. In general, the use of seaweed extract improved the fruit quantity and quality of this important product. Therefore, it is recommended to use seaweed extract in ‘Golden Delicious’ apple orchards.

Pollen sources and time of pollination for hand pollination affect biochemical and organoleptic attributes of sugar apple (Annona squamosa L.) cv. Arka Sahan

The present investigation aimed to know the effect of different pollen sources and time of pollination for hand pollination on biochemical and organoleptic properties in sugar apple cv. Arka Sahan. For the study, a total 130 flowers of cv. Arka Sahan were hand pollinated with three different pollen sources, such as Balanagar, Raydurg and APK-Ca 1 at three different times in the July. It was found that pollen source and timing significantly affected fruit quality attributes and organoleptic traits. Fruits of T1 (first pollination with Balanagar) exhibited maximum pulp weight, fruit weight and seeds per fruit. The biochemical traits such as higher total soluble solids (32.33 ºBrix), lower titratable acidity (TA) (0.25%), higher total sugar (TS) (25.55%), reducing sugar (RS) (22.75%) and non-reducing sugar (NRS) (2.66 %) were also reported in T1. Likewise, higher ascorbic acid (AA) (27.87 mg/100g) and minimum total phenols content (TPC) (66.76 ?g GAE/100g) were also obtained in T1 yielded fruits compared to the naturally pollinated (control). Evaluation of organoleptic revealed that pollen source and pollination time also affected the sweetness, sourness aroma, grittiness and overall acceptability (8.62) of pulp. Results of organoleptic evaluation revealed that pollen sources and pollination times also affected the sweetness, sourness, aroma, grittiness and overall acceptability (8.62) of the fruit pulp. Hence, Balanagar could be used as an effective pollen source for hand pollination in Arka Sahan during initial weeks of July to get higher quality and acceptability of the sugar apple fruits.

Essential Oils and Chitosan Applications to Protect Apples against Postharvest Diseases and to Extend Shelf Life

Apple fruits are susceptible to pathogenic fungi such as Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium expansum which are responsible for significant pre- and postharvest fruit losses. Given the strong restriction in the use of synthetic agrochemicals, especially during the postharvest phase, alternatives are currently sought for a more sustainable management of apple storage. The antifungal activity of thyme, clove, anise, camphor, and juniper essential oils (EOs) was evaluated with in vitro tests and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined. Thyme and anise EOs showed a MIC value of 0.5 and 1 mL L−1 against B. cinerea, respectively. A MIC of 0.5 mL L−1 was found for clove EO against P. expansum. Camphor and juniper EOs were found to be less effective. Although in those experiments the antifungal activity of EOs was proven, when EOs were applied in in vivo conditions they did not demonstrate the same effectiveness. In order to preserve EO inhibitory performances, edible coatings combining polysaccharide matrices (chitosan, arabic gum, and xanthan gum) with EOs were tested. After considering consistency, uniform coverage of the fruit surface, and antifungal properties of the matrix, chitosan was identified as the most suitable component for EO encapsulation. Treatments with chitosan in combination with thyme EO on apple fruits (cv. ‘Braeburn’) showed inhibitory effects on infection caused by B. cinerea (−48% of infected wounds compared to untreated). Similarly, clove EO combined with chitosan reduced the Penicillium infections in apple cv. ‘Golden Delicious’ by 62%. These results therefore suggest the effectiveness of the use of EOs encapsulated with chitosan for the control of postharvest diseases of apple fruits during storage.

Effect of Deficit Irrigation and Hand Thinning on Post-harvest Quality of Apple Cv. ‘Golab’

Effect of Deficit Irrigation and Hand Thinning on Post-harvest Quality of Apple Cv. ‘Golab’