The objective of the present study was to evaluate how the crop fruit load status in orange tree 'Valência' throughout a year affects the carbohydrate content in leaves, the vegetative growth, the flowering, the fruit set, and the yield in the following season, in plants with and without irrigation. The experiment was conduced in two steps in field condition. In the first step (February, 2004) a half of both, irrigated and non irrigated plants, had all the fruits removed. The experimental design was a 2 x 2 factorial with six repetitions. The results were subjected to analyses of variance and means were compared by the Tukey test at 5%. The presence of fruits affected the vegetative growth and the flowering intensity. In second step, the same oranges trees that have been defruited presented higher yield. These plants showed a less intense flowering, indicating that flowering was partially inhibited by the fruits. Our results did not show any evidence that the carbohydrates content could have limited flowering intensity due to a competition with the fruits for carbohydrates. The low winter air temperatures were suitable to induce flowering in the irrigated orange trees. However flowering was more intense in case of water deficit in non irrigated plants during the induction crop phase. The number of bearing fruits and the initial growth of fruits are limited by the availability of carbohydrates.
Citrus sinensis L.; carbohydrates; vegetative growth; reproductive growth; flowering induction
