IMPROVING FRUIT QUALITY OF MANFALOTY AND WONDERFULL POMEGRANATES BY USING BAGGING AND SOME SPRAY TREATMENTS WITH GIBBERELLIC ACID, CALCIUM CHLORIDE AND KAOLIN.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Pomology Dept.,Fac.Agric.,Mansoura Univ.,Egypt.

2 Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Egypt

Abstract

        This study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2012 and 2013 on Manfaloty and Wonderful pomegranate trees at5 and 3-years old respectively, the trees were spaced at 4x4 m. grown in a sandy soil. The highest values of yield and its components i.e., fruit weight, fruit number /tree and yield /tree were recorded when Manfaloty and Wonderful pomegranate trees treated with GA3 at 50 or 100ppm, CaCl2 4 %, kaolin 2.5 or 5 % and bagging treatment. The lowest percentage of fruit creaking and sunburn were obtained with bagging treatment followed by kaolin 5% and spraying by CaCl2 and GA3 treatments compared with the control treatment .All treatments caused a highly significant increase in Marketable fruits %. Bagging treatment gave the highest Marketable fruits percentage compared with the control and other treatments. The highest fruit length and diameter obtained by GA3 50 or 100ppm and CaCl2 2 or 4% treatment. Furthermore,GA3, kaolin and bagging treatments improvedSSC, total acidity and SSC/acid ratio ,meanwhile the highest anthocyanin content in juice and peel  was obtained by bagging and spraying kaolin 5% treatments  in both cultivars. Therefore, these treatments could be recommended for improving Manfaloty and Wonderfull pomegranate cvs performance under similar conditions of this study.

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