Effects of pruning, bud removal and benzyladenine application on branch development of two-year-old apple nursery trees on dwarfing rootstocks

In Europe changes have been made recently in apple nursery tree structure. In Japan, one-year-old trees which have no branches on the stem (whips) hav e been used for planting high density apple orchards. But they are not suit able for training into spindle bush tree and tend to remain juvenile. Branching of 6 Japanese varieties was compared following treatments of prun ing and bud removal in which whips were headed back 50 to 60 cm above the g round in the spring to allow only the terminal bud on the stem to grow. Fiv e to eight branches grew from the axillary buds of the new shoot of 'Fuji' and 'Homei' trees, but only a few branches from shoots of 'Shinano-gold', ' Akibae', and 'Shinanored'. The effects on branching of combined treatments of pruning and bud removal with benzyladenine (BA) application of 'Fuji' whip trees were also examined . Well-branched two-year-old 'Fuji' trees, which have an average of 15.3 br anches with wide crotch angles, could be grown by the combined treatment of heading, bud removal, and BA application.