The impact of calcium chloride, potassium nitrate and flower thinning on yield component and fruit quality of manfalouty pomegranate cultivar [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

Pomegranate growers in Egypt have been struggling with a variety of production issues, including splitting, sunburn, and a lack of proper colour intensity and consistency, which are major barriers to attaining high quality fruit. The current research aims to evaluate the impacts of calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium nitrate (KNO3), and flower thinning on reducing these problems and enhancing fruit quality. Seven treatments were carried out, including foliar application with CaCl2 2 and 4%, KNO3 250 and 500 ppm alone or combined with flower thinning and control (spraying with water). The spraying treatments took place three times, at the beginning of flowering (in Apr.), after fruit set completion (first Jul.), and before harvest (first Sept.), during the two study seasons. Hand flower thinning was done to all of the flowers that surged from the last week of May until the end of the flowering period. The obtained results indicated that spraying 500 ppm KNO3 or 4% CaCl2 alone or combined with flower thinning are regarded as the best treatments in terms of their impact on the yield components, fruit quality, anthocyanin content, and reducing fruit cracking.
Keywords: Flower thinning, Anthocyanin, Fruit cracking

Summary in Arabic