Effect of Foliar Spraying with Gibberellic Acid on Fruit Cracking of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)

• Published in: International research journal of innovations in engineering and technology 2021-02, Vol.5 (2), p.53-62
• Main Authors: DRAIE, Dr. Rida, ABORAS, Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acids; Cracking (fracturing); Flowering; Fruits; Gibberellic acid; Ripening; Spraying
• ISSN: 2581-3048; 2581-3048
• DOI: 10.47001/IRJIET/2021.502009

Fruit cracking is one of the most important obstacles that pomegranate cultivation suffers from, which inflicts great damage on the crop, sometimes reaching more than 60%. The research was carried out in the 2018-2019 agricultural season in a field planted with pomegranate trees, with the aim of studying the effect of foliar spraying with gibberellic acid in reducing fruit cracking. The experiment was conducted according to a complete randomized block design. We had three treatments for concentrations of gibberellic acid (0, 100, and 200 ppm) and four treatments for the number of spraying times (0, 1, 2, and 3 times). The results showed the superiority of all treatments of spraying with gibberellic acid over the control treatment in most of the studied traits (early flowering and ripening time, increasing the percentage of fruit-set, improving the quality of fruits, increasing productivity). Increasing the number of spraying with gibberellic acid reduced the percentage of fruit cracking, as it reached 73.96%, 24.08%, 13.81%, and 12.98% in treatments of 0, 1, 2 and 3 spraying times respectively. The increase of the spraying concentration also achieved a significant reduction in the percentage of cracking fruits, which amounted to 18.28% and 13.75% in the treatments of concentrations A and B, respectively.