Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: Summer pruning of apples, as opposed to the conventional commercial practice of dormant pruning, consistently reduced the incidence of flyspeck on apple fruit by approximately 50% in each of 2 years in trees where no fungicides were applied. In commercial orchard blocks using fungicides, summer pruning also produced a slight but significant decrease in disease severity. There appear to be at least two mechanisms contributing to decreased flyspeck incidence and severity in summer-pruned apple trees. Summer pruning resulted in a small change in the apple canopy microclimate, decreasing the hours of relative humidity >95% in the canopy by 63% and increasing the evaporative potential. Summer pruning also resulted in improved spray deposition in the upper two-thirds of the tree canopy when applications were made with an airblast sprayer.
Source: Plant Disease
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: U.S. Department of Agriculture
OpenAlex ID: W2044521286