Effect of Some Bacterial Strains on Some Morphological and Pomological Characteristics Against Cadmium Toxicity in Three Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) Cultivars

Abstract

In this study, the effects of mulch treatments on branching and fruit characteristics of sweet cherry cv. Sweetheart treated with perlan (GA4+7+BA) were investigated. Sweet Heart seedlings grafted on “Mazzard rootstock”, were evaluated on black and clear polyethylene mulches. Grafted trees were planted as 3 replicates and 8 saplings per replicate. Mulch materials were applied at the end of March and perlan was applied when average plant height reached to 50 cm. The data were collected in November 2013 (tree and branch characteristics), June 2015 (fruit characteristics) and in April 2016 (Number of flowers) and the results were analyzed with SPSS statistical software. Plant height, stem diameter, the height of the first branch, lateral branch numbers, lengths, diameters and angles, yield per plant, fruit number per plant, fruit-bearing tree rate, fruit diameter and number of flowers per plant were investigated. Statistically significant results were observed on all parameters evaluated. In this experiment, black mulch (BM) treatment was found the most effective on all traits except number of flowers per plant. According to results, lateral branches per plant (1.71), branch angle (48.50o), branch length (27.23 cm), and branch diameter (6.73 mm) values were observed in BM treatment. Also, fruit weight per plant (79.77 g), number of fruits per plant (11.80), fruit diameter (23.38 mm) and fruit-bearing tree rate (6/7) were obtained in BM treatment. Nevertheless, the maximum number of flowers (83.67) per plant was observed on clear mulch (CM) treatment on the second year. Based on the observations, well-developed lateral branch formation caused by BM treatment may be useful for nursery tree producers. Also, BM treated trees had the highest fruit yield per plant for the first fruit year, while CM provided the highest fruit yield on the second year.