New approaches to the alleviation of barewood in young apple trees

Summary

Precocity is particularly important for the economic production of intensively planted apple trees. Unfortunately some cultivars show a propensity for barewood on young trees, which limits early production on 2 year-old spur sites. The new cultivar, ‘Scifresh’ (Jazz?) has shown serious problems of barewood under New Zealand conditions on M.9 and M.26 rootstocks. Barewood has been associated with excessive flowering on feathers and 1 year-old wood. Weak flower clusters develop towards the base of the shoots which do not set fruit and drop off, leaving blind buds. Although there are larger, more well-developed flower clusters on the distal parts of the 1 year-old shoots, cropping these can result in spur extinction. Therefore, in both cases, there is a lack of spur development for the following season resulting in barewood. Experimental treatments have focused on: 1) the effect of timing (January-May) and concentration (400 and 133 mg l^–1 gibberellic acid GA₃) sprays in the nursery to reduce flowering on 1 year-old wood; and 2) the effect of concentration and timing of localised cytokinin applications in the Spring to re-invigorate blind buds. Two applications of 400 mg l^–1 GA₃ in late January and late February in the first year in the nursery were effective in eliminating flowering on “knip boom” trees in the following Spring after cutting back. Two applications of 400 mg l^–1 GA₃, in early and late January, to “knip boom” trees in their second year in the nursery reduced flowering by over 40% when the trees were planted in the orchard. Twelve months later these trees showed an increased density of spur flowers on the original feathers. Aqueous solutions of the cytokinins benzyladenine and thidiazuron, at 500 mg l^–1 or 2500 mg l^–1 respectively, were applied by brush, prior to, during and post-budbreak, to sections of barewood on 2 year-old or 3 year-old wood on main branches of ‘Scifresh’/M.9 trees. Thidiazuron (at 2500 mg l^–1) was far more effective than benzyladenine at inducing growth of dormant buds, even resulting in multiple bud-breaks at individual sites.