The effect of controlled deprivation of nitrogen, potassium and ringing the bearing branches on the incidence of misshapen navel disorder and fruit quality in “Washington” navel oranges

Abstract EN

There is a lack of information about the causes leading to misshapen navel formation which obviously flourishes in young bearing navel oranges whether under arid or moderate conditions.

Thirty “Washington” navel oranges at the age of 4 years old were treated on May 1st with 3 different deprivation regimes of Nitrogen(N), Potassium (K) and 2 ringing positions at the bearing branches to investigate the role of the increase of N and K leaf content, and carbohydrate availability on the incidence of misshapen navel disorder (MND).

Either nutrient deprivation treatments or ringing processes remarkably reduced such disorder during two seasons 2013 and 2014.

N leaf content increase was found to have a strong positive coefficient correlation with MND.

Moreover, N deprivation for one month was the only treatment that didn’t cause consistent change in any fruit characteristic.

Thus, the present study revealed that N deprivationwas the most effective treatment on mitigating incidence of MND.