THE EFFECTS OF GROWTH RETARDANTS ON THE FLORAL INDUCTION OF THE PLUM-TREE

Fruit trees show an inverse relation between rate of growth and that of floral induction; in the case of the domestic plum-tree, this applies to middle flower buds, between shoots presenting various growth types as well as between the various growth areas of a shoot, and finally between the PLUS and MINUS phases of the alternation.
But this relation does not seem absolute: when flowers or young fruit are suppressed on alternating trees during a PLUS phase, there is simultaneously an increase both in growth and induction.

It would seem profitable to use growth retardants in the study of these relations and to analyse their action on induction; in this way one can judge their eventual interest in the preventing of alternation.

Symposium of Working Group on Plum Genetics and Plum Breeding

J. COURANJOU

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1968.10.18