EFFECT OF NUTRIENTS AND PACLOBUTRAZOLE ON THE VEGETATIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE GROWTH OF PEACH IN ORCHARD-NURSERY

Abstract

With the objective to reduce the juvenile period in order to accelerate fruit production and to increase the rate of flower bud set, 15 months old segregant young peach plants (Prunus persica L. Batsch) from Tetela del Volcán, México, established in a meadow-orchard in Montecillo, State of México, were treated with: 1) one foliar aspersion of paclobutrazol at 250 mg 1^-1 of the active ingredient; 2) two foliar aspersions of nitrogen + phcsphorus at concentrations of 10 and 5 g r^-1 respectively, with a later defoliation using hydrogen cyanamide; and 3) three foliar aspersions with the same nutrients and concentrations indicated in (2) and a later defoliation with hydrogen cyanamide. In plants treated with paclobutrazol there was a high bud set of 9.0 (according to a scale from 0 to 10) and 11 % of fruit set, as well as greater frost resistance, although a less vegetative growth. The control yielded 4. 8 and 1.7 %
for the same variables. The response of the plants treated with nutrients was lower than the control in terms of the bud and fruit set variables, showing also less resistance to frost.