Study of the effect of organomineral fertilizer on the resistance of apple trees to spring frosts

   The article presents the results of a new preparation test – natural plant complex (NPC) "White Pearl Universal Antifreeze" (WPU Antifreeze).

   The purpose of the research was to study the effect of organomineral fertilizer on physiological and biochemical indicators of apple tree resistance to spring frosts.

   The object of research is apple trees of the Sinap Orlovsky variety from the bioresource collection of the Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding. The experiment was laid in three variants: 1 – control (no treatment); 2 – foliar treatment with 1 % solution of the NPC "WPU Antifreeze"; 3 – foliar treatment with 3% solution of the NPC "WPU Antifreeze". There are three replications, with five record trees in each variant. Two-year studies revealed that three-fold treatment with 1 and 3 % solutions of the NPC "WPU Antifreeze" preparation increased the level of bound water in the fruit buds by 9.8 and 3.8 % against the background of sucrose increase by 32.3 % compared to the control, which presumably protects plant cells from freezing during spring frosts. At the same time, it is shown that treatment with the NPC "WPU Antifreeze" preparation probably promoted acceleration of proline biosynthesis and transport into the budding fruit buds. After threefold treatment with 1 and 3 % solutions of the drug, the level of proline decreased 8.0 and 9.2 times, respectively, in the control by 7.8 times. In addition, the positive effect of the preparation NPC "WPU Antifreeze" on the stability of flowers and buds of apple trees both in laboratory and field conditions was noted. Thus, the application of the preparation NPC "WPU Antifreeze" allows increasing plant resistance to low-temperature stress in spring due to optimization of the water regime and improvement of carbohydrate-protein metabolism.

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