EFFECT OF WINTER PRUNING ON SOME VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN APRICOT CULTIVAR

A. A.Al-Rawi, Waleed; .E . A .Al-Hadethi, Mustafa

	EFFECT OF WINTER PRUNING ON SOME VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN APRICOT CULTIVAR
The Iraqi Journal of Agricultural Science
Article 1, Volume 41, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 1-13
Authors
Waleed A. A.Al-Rawi; Mustafa .E . A .Al-Hadethi
Abstract
This experiment was conducted in the apricot orchard ,Dept.of Horticulture, College of Agriculture /University of Baghdad, Abu Ghraib .This was during the growing seasons of 2008 and 2009. Apricot trees Prunus armeniaca cv.Labeeb -1- four year old were used. The study included two methods of pruning. The first method was thinning (t) and the second method was heading (h). In each method, three levels of pruning were used, no pruning (t1 or h1), removing 25% (t2 or h2)of branches or 33% (t3 or h3) branches of the trees. Each treatment replicated three times with a factorial experiment with RCBD. The number of trees in this experiment was 27 trees pruning was done during February. The Experimental results showed that thinning 33% and heading 25% of branches (t3h3) significantly gave the highest leaf area of 26.98 and 31.91 cm2 and the highest average yearly growth of 49.39 and 50.53 cm and the highest chlorophyll index of 33.34 and 35.57 SPAD unit , highest nitrogen percentage of 0.816 and 0.862% and phosphorus of 0.339 and 0.356% and potassium of 0.767 and 0.792% for both seasons, respectively. The lowest value of these parameters were found in the control treatment, it was highest in branches content of carbohydrates and C/N it gave 8.43 and 8.81% carbohydrates and11.77 and 12.36 % C/N ratio in both seasons, respectively. It could be concluded of this experiment that the winter pruning treatments improved vegetative characteristics in apricot trees and we recommend conducting a winter pruning annually and study the effect of interaction between summer and winter pruning on apricot trees.

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