Vegetative growth restriction in pome and stone fruits – A review

The balance between vegetative and reproductive growth in temperate fruits is associated with improved production efficiency and fruit quality. Horticultural approaches have great potential to regulate the tree size. Among these approaches, rootstocks have provided apple growers with trees of reduced stature suited to a wide range of planting densities, but poor anchorage and disease susceptibility of dwarfing rootstocks are major concern for their exploitation to control growth in temperate fruits. The lack of suitable dwarfing rootstocks compatible with peach, pear, plum, apricot, and cherry have further added to the problem. Pruning has proved efficient method of growth control. Judicious pruning coupled with branch orientation offers a much better approach to growth control in many temperate fruit trees. It is possible that significant control of fruit tree growth could be obtained by improved management of fertilizers in orchards, including timing of fertilizer application. Use of plant growth regulators continue to offer the most efficient and cost effective technique for regulating shoot growth and controlling tree size.