FIELD APPLICATIONS TO ENHANCE COLORATION AND RIPENING OF CANINO APRICOTS IN THE PRESENCE AND ABSENCE OF ANTI-ETHYLENE COMPOUND

The present study was conducted during the two successive seasons 2019 and 2020 to determine the effects of pre harvest applications of ProTon, Ethrel, Lisophos individually or plus Aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG) (ProTon + AVG, Ethrel + AVG, and Lisophos + AVG) compared with control on the coloration and ripening of six years old Canino apricot ( Prunus armeniaca L.) trees in a private orchard at El-Bostan region, El-Behiara governorate, Egypt. The obtained results indicated that, the lowest number of leaves drop was recorded with LPE treatment whether alone or when was combined with AVG in consistent manner in both seasons. In similar manner AVG treatment did not cause any leaves drop in the tagged and treated branches in the two seasons. Applied Ethrel alone caused greater fruit abscission than ProTon. However, the combination of ProTon plus AVG resulted in more fruit abscission than that obtained with Ethrel plus AVG in the two seasons of the study. The highest increase in fresh fruit weight, stone weight and flesh weight were obtained by the application of LPE combined with AVG. The results indicated that, fruit size was increased significantly under the three treatments ProTon plus AVG or Ethrel plus AVG and LPE plus AVG and the individual treatment of lisophos. Ethrel alone or combined with AVG led to increase in TSS and reduce the electrolyte leakage percentage compared with the control. Even AVG alone reduced TSS in both increasing TSS/acid ratio in consistent manner in both seasons as compared with the control. The data revealed that all treatments resulted in significant reduction of chlorophyll a, b and carotene as compared with the control. The highest increase in total carbohydrates, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar and crude fiber were obtained in fruits that treated with Ethrel in both seasons followed by ProTon. In conclusion, it could be recommended to apply lisophos plus AVG to improve "Canino" apricot coloration and carotene content while avoiding electrolyte leakage.