Effect of Nitrobenzene on Flowering, Fruiting and Quality Parameters of Apple cv. Royal Delicious under Cold Dry Temperate Region of Himachal Pradesh

Apple accounts for more than 74 per cent of total fruit production in Himachal Pradesh. Poor fruit-set as well as heavy fruit drop due to improper pollination, moisture stress and adverse environmental conditions during flowering are the major barriers in dry temperate zone fruit production of apple. Apple tree blooms abundantly but only very few of them matures into fruit and it is the need of the hour to induce better fruiting with chemicals that ultimately augment the productivity. With such an intent the experiment was carried out. Nitrobenzene 20 % EW applied as a foliar treatment at three stages i.e. pink bud, petal fall and fruit setting stage. The highest number of fruits and flowers/plant was observed in T4 (3ml/liter) and T3 (2 ml/liter) of Nitrobenzene 20 % applied treatments. On the other hand the lowest number of flowers as well as fruits were recorded from T2 (1 ml/liter) and T1 (control). Among different treatments tested, 20% nitrobenzene applied at 3 ml/litre showed superior results in contrast to other nitrobenzene levels with enhancing flowering, fruit set, yield and quality.