ISHS Acta Horticulturae 1175: III EUFRIN Plum and Prune Working Group Meeting on Present Constraints of Plum Growing in Europe
Leader management techniques to induce vegetative bud development in plum |
| Authors: | M. Cvetković, N. Micic, G. Djuric, B. Bosancic |
| Keywords: | cultivar, notching, shoot |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1175.9 |
| Abstract:
This paper examines the effect of notching technique on the degree of activation of dormant buds and initiation of vegetative winter bud outgrowth in plum (Prunus domestica). Shoot growth induced by the treatment was also characterized. In intensive planting systems for stone fruit trees, the main issue in establishing the projected growth-cropping relationship is the formation and positioning of vegetative buds within the crown. Notching is a leader management practice useful in encouraging this process. In this research, notching was performed on the one-year-old portion of the leader of plum trees trained to the spindle planting system. Notching cuts were made on the bottom half of the leader and along the whole length of the leader as two different treatments. The experiment included plum cultivars 'Čačanska Lepotica', 'Čačanska Rodna', 'Stanley' and 'Hanita'. The spontaneous development of vegetative buds on the leader in all tested cultivars was low, ranging from 6.80-9.18%. The induction of vegetative bud development by the notching operation depending on cultivar and method of treatment was high (95.77-98.11%). A statistically highly significant effect of treatment method was observed in the number of activated buds and total shoot growth. Cultivar had a statistically highly significant effect on average shoot length which affects the character of the shoot itself. The position of new shoots on the leader and their total length, as induced by the notching operation, requires the use of this leader management technique during the initial years of training plum trees to spindle planting systems. | |
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