APS_April 2023

82 J ournal of the A merican P omological S ociety Table 3. Biennial bearing index (BBI) on a yield weight basis from a three-year experiment at Lyndonville, NY. Hand thinning and 745 the first plant growth regulator applications occurred approximately 4-6 weeks after full bloom in both years, with subsequent 746 applications made on approximately two-week intervals. 1-napthaleneacetic acid (NAA) was applied at 5 mg∙L -1 and ethephon (Eth) at 747 150 mg∙L -1 . 748 Biennial bearing index (BBI) Table 3. Biennial bearing index (BBI) on a yield weight basis from a three-year experiment at Lyndon ville, NY. Hand thinning and the first plant growth regulator applications occurred approximately 4-6 weeks after full bloom in both years, with subsequent applications made on approximately two-week intervals. 1-napthaleneacetic acid (NAA) was applied at 5 mg∙L -1 and ethephon (Eth) at 150 mg∙L -1 . Table 3. Biennial bearing index (BBI) on a yield weight basis from a three-year experiment at Lyndonville, NY. Hand thinning and 745 the first plant growth regulator applications occurred approximately 4-6 weeks after full bloom in both years, with subsequent 746 applications made on approx mately two-week interv ls. 1-napthalen acetic acid (NAA) was applied at 5 mg∙L -1 and ethephon (Eth) at 747 150 mg∙L -1 . 748 Biennial bearing index (BBI)

‘Harry Masters Jersey’ ‘Harry Masters Jersey’

‘Geneva Tremlett’s Bitter’ ‘Geneva Tremlett’s Bitter’

‘Binet Rouge’ ‘Binet Rouge’ 1.00 z,y,x 1.00 z,y,x 0.34*** 0.34***

‘Brown Snout’ ‘Brown Snout’

‘Chisel Jersey’ ‘Chisel Jersey’

Treatment Treatment

‘Dabinett’ ‘Dabinett’

‘Michelin’ ‘Michelin’

Control Control

1.00 1.00

0.65 0.65

0.65 0.65

0.47 0.47

0.98 0.98

1.00 1.00

Hand-thin (6 fruit/cm 2 ) Hand-thin (6 fruit/cm 2 ) NAA, NAA, NAA, NAA NAA, NAA, NAA, NAA Eth, NAA, NAA, NAA Eth, NAA, NAA, NAA Eth, Eth, NAA, NAA

0.31*** 0.31***

0.12*** 0.12***

0.35*** 0.35***

0.20*** 0.20***

0.44*** 0.44***

0.42*** 0.42***

0.93 0.93 0.98 0.98 0.88

1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

0.40 0.40 0.42 0.42 0.54

0.77 0.77 0.68 0.68 0.25

0.34 0.34 0.18 0.18 0.35

0.86 0.86 0.70 0.70 0.98

1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

z Significance in columns compared each treatment to the control using Dunnett’s test. *** indicates significance at P ≤ 0.001. y n=5 trees per treatment (25 trees per cultivar). x BBI (unitless) ranges from 0 to 1, with a value 0 indicating completely consistent yields, and a value of 1 indicating complete absence of a crop in at least one year. 1.00 z Significance in colu ns compared each treatment to the control using Dunnett’s test. *** indicates significance at P ≤ 0.001. 749 y n=5 trees per treatment (25 trees per cultivar). 750 x BBI (unitless) ranges from 0 to 1, with a value 0 indicating completely consistent yields, and a value of 1 indicating complete absence 751 of a crop in at least one year 752 37 1.00 Significance in columns compared each treatment to the contr l using Dunnett’s test. *** indicates significa ce t P ≤ 0.001. 749 y n=5 trees per treatment (25 trees per cultiv r). 750 x BBI (unitless) ranges from 0 to 1, with a value 0 indicating completely consistent yields, and a value of 1 indicating complete absence 751 of a crop in at least one year 752 Eth, Eth, NAA, NAA 0.88 1.00 0.54 0.25 0.35 0.98

the control for all seven cultivars in 2018, and for six of seven cultivars in 2016, with ‘Harry Masters Jersey’ being the exception (data not presented, Zakalik 2021). Projected yield, 2019, Lyndonville Though thinning increased return bloom in Spring 2019 relative to control and PGR treatments, the recorded increase was insuf ficient to compensate for reduced yields due to thinning in 2016–2018. Even if a crop den sity of 6 fruit/cm 2 TCSA had been imposed for a fourth season, cumulative yields for the thinned treatment would have been lower than for control and PGR treatments (data not presented, Zakalik 2021). Biennial bearing, Lyndonville . Of the seven cultivars used in this experiment, ‘Chisel Jersey’, ‘Dabinett’, and ‘Harry Mas ters Jersey’ bore fruit fairly regularly (BBI was relatively low) when untreated; ‘Binet Rouge’, ‘Brown Snout’, ‘Michelin’, and ‘Geneva Tremlett’s Bitter’, were mostly or entirely biennial (BBI of ~1.00) (Table 3). ‘Michelin’ was somewhat less biennial than ‘Binet Rouge’, ‘Brown Snout’, or ‘Geneva Tremlett’s Bitter’ for two of the three PGR treatments. Yield (kg/tree) was least overall

in 2017, and greatest overall in 2018, for all seven cultivars (data not presented, Zakalik, 2021). Reputedly “annual” cultivars ‘Chisel Jersey’, ‘Dabinett’, and ‘Harry Masters Jer sey’ had horticulturally meaningful (>2 kg/ tree) yields in 2017, while the other four cul tivars bore little to no fruit (0–2 kg/tree) in 2017, the “off” year for the whole orchard. Yield, Lansing . Thinning reduced total yield weight (kg) per tree compared to the control, while PGRs did not significantly af fect yield weight in either year of the Lansing experiment (Table 4). Thinning significantly reduced crop density compared to the con trol, while PGRs had no effect on crop den sity at harvest in either year (Table 5). Thin and Thin+PGR treatments both had lower crop density than PGR-only and control in both years, though apparent differences were not significant for ‘Chisel Jersey’ in 2017. Crop density was lower overall for ‘Chisel Jersey’ compared with ‘Brown Snout’ yet yield weight per tree was often greater. Trunk growth . There was no difference in TCSA or TCSA growth among treatments for six of seven cultivars in the Lyndonville experiment. For ‘Geneva Tremlett’s Bitter’, 37