More on GA and Cherry Splitting

More on GA and Cherry Splitting

More on GA and Cherry Splitting. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Yesterday we began a conversation with OSU’s Dr. Clive Kaiser regarding the use of gibberellic acid.

KAISER: The net result of using gibberellic acid is improved fruit quality. Typically fruit firmness increases and that’s the main reason people want and especially marketers wanted. It increases fruit size in some instances and typically they have high sugar levels and it may also improve fruit color.

In addition to being a growth regulator Dr. Kaiser says it can increase lateral branching. He talks about recommendations for pre-harvest applications.

KAISER: Typically we’re looking at an application at straw color. When the fruit changes from green to that straw color at a concentration of 20 parts per million. Now this is synonymous across all the fruit producing parts of the world. The concentrations can be used as high as 35 parts per million but if you do up the those high concentrations you should expect a reduced bloom the following year.

Regarding fruit cracking, Dr. Kaiser says he did some work on the subject in Norway.

KAISER: Norway is the one place in the world where you are guaranteed to get fruit cracking because they have so much rain on the side of the fjord. So every year you will have at least 23% cracking in your trees and if you don’t cover them it can be as high as 85%.

We’ll wrap up on Monday.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

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