Effect of Benzyladenine on the Promotion of Bud Development and Branching of Picea pungens

Abstract

Picea pungens Englm. trees were treated with a single foliar spray of solutions containing 0, 100, 250, 500, and 1000 mM BA at 4 different times as follows during the growing season: 1) dormant trees, 2) at bud break, 3) during stem elongation, 4) summer hardwood, and 5) summer hardwood combined with a pruning. Treatments of 1000 mM at the time of bud break and to pruned summer hardwood trees resulted in an increase in bud number but not a corresponding increase in branch number the following year.