Improving the fruit setting process in apple trees to increase production on farms

This Task Force is working to improve the fruit setting process in the production of cider apples to ensure high yields.

This process is affected by the conditions of flowering development, hormonal regulation, weather conditions during the process, the vigour of the fruiting branch, pests and the nutritional status of the plant. The initiative is about testing additives for apple trees, which mainly influence the nutritional status of the same in order to achieve a guarantee of fruit setting, good fruit growth and outstanding quality for processing.

The following will be determined: the quantity and proportion of phosphorus and nitrogen adjusted for the fruit without negatively affecting its growth; the dose of potassium, which with foliar concentrations higher than the optimum improves the size of the fruit without detriment to its quality; the role of magnesium, on which the partition of photoassimilates that must reach the fruit to fatten it depends; the contribution of boron to improve fruiting and the reduction of premature fall of young fruits and the improvement of the quality of the apple and the fractionation of the fertilization to develop the size of the fruit in batches of punctual contributions.