ARS | Publication request: Good Bud, Bad Bud

Submitted to: Society of Citrus Nurserymen International Congress
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: April 30, 2011
Publication Date: June 1, 2011
Citation: Krueger, R., Lovatt, C.J. 2011. Good Bud, Bad Bud. Society of Citrus Nurserymen International Congress. CD.

Technical Abstract: Citrus cultivars produce branches that can be characterized as “floral” and “vegetative”. Both types of mother branches produce the same number of daughter shoots, but floral mother branches produce a greater proportion of inflorescences (>95%) compared to vegetative shoots. In contrast, vegetative mother branches produce a lower proportion of floral shoots (~50%) and a greater proportion vegetative shoots (~50%) than floral mother branches. The sectors of the tree in which floral branches are found produce a larger proportion of the tree’s total fruit number than the sectors of the tree in which vegetative branches are found. Our hypothesis is that trees propagated from buds taken from floral branches will retain the internal physiological status of the floral mother branches and hence produce a greater proportion of floral branches than trees propagated from buds taken from vegetative mother branches. The greater number of floral branches would result in these trees being more productive. Buds from the two types of mother shoots collected from ‘Tahiti’ lime and ‘Washington’ navel orange were budded on ‘Carrizo’ citrange rootstocks. Ten trees of each cultivar were established in the field at UC-Riverside. The trees were harvested when 3 years old. Trees propagated with buds from floral mother shoots produced more fruit per tree compared to trees propagated with buds from vegetative mother shoots. For ‘Tahiti’ lime compare 153 fruit (73 kg) per tree to 133 fruit (57 kg) per tree, respectively (P = NS). For ‘Washington’ navel orange compare 67 fruit (83 kg) per tree produced with buds from floral mother shoots to 54 fruit (66 kg) per tree produced with buds from vegetative mother shoots (P = 0.06).