Influence of budding height and method on bi-axis young apple trees (cv. ‘Florina’)

Abstract

The article presents the results of the research on the influence of budding height and the method of bi-axis formation on quality indicators of young bi-axis apple trees of ‘Florina’ cultivar on B.118 rootstock in conditions of fruit trees nursery of educational and production department of Uman NUH. Budding with chip was made at the period of late July and early August at a height of 10 and 20 cm (the control). The formation of two axes was made with the help of budding in two ways: budding with one bud with pinching of a shoot at a height of 10 cm (the control); budding with one bud with pinching of a shoot at a height of 20 cm, budding with two buds that are opposite set, and budding with two buds that are alternate set and have a shift on a rootstock axis up to 5 cm due to each other. The maximum trunk diameter was observed in young bi-axis apple trees that have alternate and opposite ways of budding with the help of two buds at a height of 10 cm above ground level. The reduction of the budding height up to 10 cm above ground level did not affect the height of the young bi-axis apple trees, though it had a significant effect on axis elongation. It was defined that one-dimensional formation of both axes occurred with the even distribution of length and number of branches on each were observed on young apple trees that had opposite budding with two buds at the above ground level height of 10 cm. The largest number of differentiated generative buds was observed on young trees that had opposite budding with two buds at the above ground level height of 10 and 20 cm.