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Increased blooming of female and male flowers with foliar-applied potassium nitrate in pecan trees
Insufficient fulfilment of the chilling requirements of pecan trees can severely delay their blooming and impair their yield. The current study checked the compensating effects of chemical treatments for insufficient chilling in warm Mediterranean Egypt for two consecutive years. Their effect was measured for the following cultivars: Cherokee, Desirable, Choctaw, Graking and Cape-Fear. 3% hydrogen cyanamide ('Dormex'), 5% KNO3, 10% urea and water (control) were applied to 1 year old shoots of 31 year old trees, 4 weeks before normal bud-break. KNO3 and hydrogen-cyanamide resulted in the highest percentage of blooming flowers, and two weeks earlier opening of female flowers, compared to the control. Application of either one of them also synchronized the full bloom timing of male and female flowers within each cultivar in the two seasons, which markedly enhanced fruit-set rate. KNO3 produced the highest rate of male flowers blooming. These results are in line with literature data regarding increased yields in peach, almonds and pistachio.
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