Girdling branches increased flowering in citrus. The number of buds sprouted increased following treatment but the response markedly depends on the time of girdling, summer being most effective. All types of shoots, except vegetative ones, are increased in number but with no differences in its characteristics.
The influence of girdling, deficit irrigation, and a combination of girdling and deficit irrigation on fruit quality of ‘Marisol’ Clementines was investigated over two seasons, 1998 and 1999, at two different sites in South Africa. Girdling increased the total soluble solids (TSS) by 2-10%,however, the effect was not always significant. There were no trends observed for external fruit colour, fruit diameter, juice content (%), titratable acidity (TA) and TSS:TA ratios due to girdling.
F. Rivas, M. Juan, V.Almela, M. Agusti
Departamento de Producción Vegetal, Cátedra de Citricultura, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
E. Alos
Departamento de Citricultura, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias. Valencia, Spain
Y. Erner
Department of Fruit Tree Sciences. Israel
The effects of girdling performed at various dates were evaluated during two consecutive years in high- and lowbearing commercial orchards of ‘Fortune’ mandarin and ‘Clausellina’ Satsuma mandarin. The time-dependent response was evaluated through fruitlet abscission, final fruit-set and yield as related to carbohydrate contents in developing fruitlets. A few days after treatment, girdling increased the soluble sugars content (SSC) in fruitlets, reduced the daily fruit drop, and thereby diminished abscission. Application of girdling to low-bearing ‘Fortune’ mandarin orchards was most effective 15 d before anthesis (DBA) and 35 d after anthesis (DAA). It increased yield by 125%. In high-bearing orchards, the best results were achieved by girdling 35 DAA, which increased yield by 28%.