Effect of calcium chloride on growth, fruit quality and production of apple

Abstract

Apples are particularly susceptible to calcium deficiency disorders. Many of these disorders only develop during storage and may not be apparent from an external examination of the fruit. There is a low tolerance in the market place for disorders such as bitter pit and internal breakdown. Rejection of fruit at this stage is particularly costly for the grower since the costs of grading, packaging and transport would have been incurred therefore, the present investigation was conducted with the aim of analyzing the response of apple plants to foliar application of calcium chloride at various concentrations applied during defined intervals at petal fall stage. The trees were sprayed with 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75g/liters during one, two and three weeks after petal fall applied in ten different treatment combinations along with control i.e. CaCl2 0.5% at 45 & 30 days before harvest. The different calcium treatments significantly (p<0.05) affected the annual shoot growth, yield, quality of apple and physiological weight loss of fruits.