Effect of boron on growth, fruit quality and production of apple

Abstract

The experiment was laid out in the Telangi village of Kinnaur District. The experimental orchard lies under the high hills and cold desert area of Himachal Pradesh (India). There are situations where the absorbed nutrient may be poorly translocated within the plant under such situations addition of this nutrient to the soil will be inefficient and foliar feeding provides the best possibility to supplement the nutrient requirement. This may also be attributed to low boron, beside other micro nutrients. Good supply of Boron to the plant is beneficial for promoting calcium movement to the fruits. It is proposed to study the effect of Boron on growth, fruit quality and production of apple. The experiment on boron comprised of ten treatments of viz. recommended dose of boron 1% at pink bud stage and one month after pink bud stage, 100g, 200g and 300 g of boron through soil application fall stage (end of October), mid-February and tight cluster stage). The results revealed that fall application of boron @ 200g tree-1 was found to be the best treatment with respect to fruit set, fruit retention, yield and nutrient content of leaves which was at par with foliar application of boron @ 0.1% at pink bud stage.