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. 2023 May 4;18(5):e0285194.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285194. eCollection 2023.

Effect of spring nitrogen fertilization on bearing and branching behaviors of young apple trees

Martin Mészáros  1 , Hana Hnátková  1 , Patrik Čonka  1 , Tomáš Lošák  2 , Jan Náměstek  1
Affiliations

Effect of spring nitrogen fertilization on bearing and branching behaviors of young apple trees

Martin Mészáros et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The total aboveground biomass production, nutritional status, bearing and branching behaviors of the central leader and one year old shoots of young apple trees have been analyzed. The shoots were further characterized according to the length, shoot demography, and the production of terminal and lateral flowers. All the characteristics are described in connection with nitrogen supply and cultivar. Nitrogen represents one of the major macronutrients involved in the growth and development of the fruit trees. The understanding of the effect of nitrogen supply for flower bud formation can be further improved by detailed analyses of tree architecture. While the biomass production was cultivar specific, the trees within particular cultivar were characterized by almost similar growth with respect to the nitrogen supply. Cultivar ´Rubinola´ exhibited similar branching pattern, but higher vigor than ´Topaz´. As a result of higher apical dominance, ´Rubinola´ produced higher proportion of long shoots, but a lower quality of short shoots than ´Topaz´. Consequently, cultivar ´Rubinola´ produced only few terminal flowers on short shoots and lateral flowers dominantly in the distal zone, while ´Topaz´ was characterized by intensive terminal flowering, but the lateral flowers were more abundant in the median zone. Even a lower dose of spring nitrogen improved the flower bud formation on both terminal and lateral positions extending the flowering zone on one-year-old shoots. This further changed the branching and bearing behavior of the apple trees, which particularly allows to optimize their fertilization management. However, this effect appears to be further regulated by mechanism connected with apical dominance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The proportion of A) SS–short shoots, B) MS–medium shoots, and C) LS–long shoots grown as proleptic shoots including terminal prolonging shoot, when compared according to cultivar and treatment in 2017.
Different letters (P < 0.05) represents the statistical difference of the variable via the Fisher’s exact test among cultivars (capital letters) and treatments (small letters).
Fig 2
Fig 2. The proportion of axillary shoots with terminal flowers according to the cultivar ´Rubinola´, ´Topaz´, and ´Golden Delicious´ and treatment on A) short (SS), B) medium (MS), and C) long shoots (LS) in 2018.
Different letters (P < 0.05) represents the statistical difference of the variable via the Fisher’s exact test among cultivars (capital letters) and treatments (small letters).
Fig 3
Fig 3. The proportion of axillary shoots with different pattern of lateral flowering according to cultivar Rubinola (A and D), Topaz (B and E), and Golden Delicious (C and F), treatment and shoot type -medium shoots (A, B, and C) and long shoots (D, E, and F) in 2018.
Different letters (P < 0.05) represents the statistical difference of the variable via the Fisher’s exact test among cultivars (capital letters) and treatments (small letters).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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