Aulfat Monzer Hasan^*(1), Ali Khalil Dib ⁽¹⁾ and Ali Essa Elkhateeb⁽²⁾

(1). Horticulture Department, Agriculture College Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.

(2).General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Lattakia, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Aulfat Hasan. E-Mail: aulfat85@hotmail.com).

Received: 11/06/2021                                 Accepted:29/07/2021

Abstract

The experiment was carried out during the 2019/2020 season in a citrus orchard in Myaar Shaker country south of Tartous city on Citrus sinensis L.var.Valencia trees to study the impact of foliar spray with salicylic acid (150 mg/l), citric acid (500 mg/l), potassium sulfate (2.5 g/l) and Fe(Fe-EDDHA)500 mg/l on the tree vegetative growth properties, and fruiting of Valencia orange. Foliar spray treatments were applied three times according to the phenological stages of trees. The results showed that the treatments significantly raised fruit set percentage and the percent of remaining fruit after June fall, and that they improved vegetative growth parameters compared to the control. Salicylic acid spray resulted in the highest percent of remaining fruit after June fall (11.11%) compared to the control (6.22%), citric acid spray gave the highest leaf area (27.47 cm²) compared to the control (22.3 cm²). Salicylic acid spray gave the highest fruit production (177 kg/tree) was superior to all the treatments, followed by citric acid (168 kg/tree). Regarding the chlorophyll index, salicylic acid spray gave the highest values with significant differences to all the treatments. The results showed that salicylic acid and citric acid sprays were more effective than potassium sulfate and iron chelate sprays in term of the studied parameters

Key words: Valencia orange, foliar spray, vegetative growth, fruiting

Full paper in Arabic: pdf