Gibberellic acid combined with hand pollination increases ‘Red’ and ‘Lessard Thai’ sugar apple fruit quality and produced parthenocarpic ‘Gefner’ atemoya fruits

Abstract

The present research aimed to evaluate the effect of applying gibberellic acid (GA3) with hand (HP) or natural pollination (NP) on fruit set and the fruit quality of ‘Red’ and ‘Lessard Thai’ sugar apple and ‘Gefner’ atemoya fruits.This study was performed in an experimental orchard located in Homestead, Florida, USA. The experimental design included randomized blocks, with eight treatments, four replicates and four plants per plot. Treatments included: (1) HP; (2) HP + 10 mg L-1 GA3; (3) HP + 100 mg L-1 GA3; (4) HP + 1,000 mg L-1 GA3; (5) NP; (6) NP + 10 mg L-1 GA3; (7) NP + 100 mg L-1 GA3 and (8) NP + 1,000 mg L-1 GA3. The HP plus 1,000 mg L-1 GA3 promoted fruit setting above 90% over the 14 weeks for all genotypes evaluated. Significant increments for length and total fruit weight were observed. ‘Red’ sugar apple and atemoya had a reduced number of seeds per fruit. The NP plus GA3 (1,000 mg L-1) was effective in producing high quality seedless ‘Gefner’ atemoya fruits. This investigationdemonstratedthat GA3 plus hand pollination produced high quality sugar apple and atemoya seeded fruits and in association with natural pollination promoted seedless ‘Gefner’atemoya fruits.

Effect of plant-growth regulators, adjuvants and artificial pollination on the fixation and quality of Annona squamosa L cultivars’ fruit

“…In general, the application of plant regulators did not affect fruit quality. Similar results were observed by Pereira et al (2019) with Annonaceae cultivars. In contrast, Verotti et al (2019) observed SS increases (°Brix) and pH reduction with the increase in concentration of plant regulator mix (auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin).…”

“…In contrast, Verotti et al (2019) observed SS increases (°Brix) and pH reduction with the increase in concentration of plant regulator mix (auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin). The produced fruit presented a standard organoleptic quality for the species, with physical and physicochemical characteristics similar to those of other studies (Moura et al, 2019;Pereira et al, 2014a;2014b;Pereira et al, 2019;Santos et al, 2016;.…”

“…Although it produces large amounts of flowers at each production cycle, it is estimated that 5 to 10% of fruit are formed (Peña, Nadel, Barbosa-Pereira, & Smith, 2002), and this variation can change, depending on the number of visits and species of pollinator from the Nitidulidae family (Kishore et al, 2012). Moreover, fruit from natural pollination is generally small and malformed (asymmetric), which justifies the use of artificial pollination (Mota Filho et al, 2012;Moura et al, 2019;Moura et al, 2021;Pereira et al, 2019;Santos et al, 2019).…”

“…Artificial pollination increases the size, regulates the shape and improves several other physical and chemical characteristics of the fruit (Mota Filho et al, 2012). The benefits of the artificial pollination technique in species from the Annonaceae family have been emphasized in several works; however, the large number of seeds present in the fruit and the high costs associated with the work are the main disadvantages (Pereira et al, 2019;Santos et al, 2019).…”

The genus Annona: Botanical characteristics, horticultural requirements and uses

“…Three applications of gibberellic acid at 500 ul L −1 plus hand pollination of Gefner atemoya resulted in larger fruit with fewer seeds and three applications of 1,500 ul L −1 of gibberellic acid alone produced seedless fruit of good quality (Santos et al., 2016). Similarly, ‘Red’ and ‘Lessard Thai’ sugar apple flowers treated with three applications of gibberellic acid (1,000 ul L −1 ) alone or with hand pollination resulted in high percent fruit set (≥90%) (Pereira et al., 2019). Gibberellic acid treatment plus hand pollination produced fruit that had similar fruit quality as hand pollinated only Red and Lessard Thai sugar apple fruit.…”