Changes in Apple Leaf Water Status and Vegetative Growth as Influenced by Crop Load

Abstract

Eleven-year-old ‘Golden Delicious’/M. 26 apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) trees were left unthinned (483 fruit/tree), thinned to one fruit/spur (370 fruit/tree), or completely defruited. Leaf water potential, leaf stomatal conductance, and leaf water content were monitored during the growing season. From 3 weeks after thinning and continuing to harvest, trees with an average of 483 or 370 fruit had significantly lower leaf water potentials than defruited trees. Trees thinned to 370 fruit had consistently higher leaf water potentials than unthinned trees with 483 fruit. Leaves on unthinned or one fruit/spur trees had higher stomatal conductances than leaves on completely defruited trees, although these differences were detected later in the season than those for leaf water potentials. No treatment differences in leaf water content were observed. Defruited trees had higher specific leaf weights, longer shoot extension, and greater increases in trunk cross-sectional area than those not defruited. Fruit size was greatest on trees thinned to one fruit/spur.