Bioregulator Uses for Managing Growth, Flowering and Cropping
Author: Don C. Elfving
Published: 2006
Summary: The objectives of this project were: 1. Continue to develop improved recommendations for the use of ethephon (Ethrel®, Bayer CropScience) for stimulation of flowering and early fruiting in important sweet cherry cultivars on seedling rootstocks in standard and high-density plantings. 2. Examine the possibility that ethephon treatment for flowering can improve flowering and yield for more than one year after treatment. 3. Explore the potential for use of gibberellic acid (GA3) as a strategy to reduce flowering the year following treatment on mature sweet cherry trees grown on size-controlling rootstocks where excessive bloom makes crop load control critical for production of fruit of required size and quality. 4. Determine if it is economically feasible to use a single treatment program of GA on cherries to simultaneously obtain both better fruit firmness and quality in the treatment year and also control flowering for the subsequent year as a tool to adjust crop load to benefit fruit quality the next year. 5. Explore in greater detail promising results of preliminary research with SmartFresh® (1- methylcyclopropene, MCP) applied to sweet cherry trees in conjunction with ethephon for loosening fruit for mechanical harvest while reducing negative ethephon effects on fruit quality. 6. If any additional new fruit-abscission products become available, initiate tests for efficacy in loosening sweet cherries while examining effects on fruit quality.
