Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture, Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center of Khorasan Razavi, Mashhad, Iran

2 PhD Candiate, Horticultural Sciences Department, Ferdousi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

3 M.Sc., Department of Horticulture, Shirvan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shirvan, Iran

Abstract

This experiment was carried out to study effects of mechanical and chemical treatments for developing lateral shoot and increasing quality of sweet cherry, apple and pear trees in 2010-2011 in three independent experiments. In the first experiment, effect of the heading treatments in four levels (‍control, 40, 60 and 80 cm), in the second experiment, BA treatments in four levels (0, 200, 400, 600 mgL-1) and spraying times in three levels (1, 2 and 3 times) and in the third experiment, Arbolin treatments in four level (0, 5, 15, 25 mlL-1) and spraying times in two level (1 and 2 times) were investigated. Results showed that mechanical and chemical treatments improved the branching of trees but the lateral shoot number with chemical treatments had significant increase in comparison with heading treatments. Therefore, the most lateral shoot number was induced with BA in concentration of 600mgL-1 in three times. The mechanical and chemical treatments in sweet cherry induced lateral shoots more than apple and pear trees. ‘Siah Mashhad’, ‘Red Delicious’ and ‘Spadona’ induced more lateral shoot numbers in comparision with other cultivars.

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