Distribution of Flowering and 

 Fruit Set on Royal Gala 



If the location of fruit influences fruit size, 

 then it is important to know the normal flower- 

 ing habit and fruit set distribution of Gala. 

 Royal Gala/M.26 planted in 1988 were used in 

 this study. In 1990, two branches per tree were 

 tagged and measured at bloom, and all of the 

 flowers on spurs and one-year-old wood were 

 counted. In 1991, bloom was determined simi- 

 larly but fruit set was also taken. Over two 

 thirds of all flowers on Royal Gala were produced 

 on one-year-old wood (Table 2). The location of 

 flowers was strikingly similar in the two years. 



Fruit set was heavy in 1991. Although the 

 percent of flowers that set on one-year-old wood 

 was lower than that on spurs, following June 

 drop these fruit still represented nearly two 



thirds of all of the fruit that set on these limbs. 

 For most cultivars the majority of flowers 

 are borne on spurs or terminally on short shoots. 

 On these cultivars, bloom on one-year-old wood 

 can vary significantly, depending upon the year, 

 but typically it does not constitute the majority 

 of the flowers on a tree. Gala is different in that 

 most of the flowering does occur as lateral bloom 

 on one-year-old wood and this lateral bloom sets 

 significant numbers of fruit. Bloom data pre- 

 sented here for Royal Gala were part of a larger 

 Gala strain trial. Bloom was determined simi- 

 larly on the others four strains included in this 

 trial. The distribution of bloom and fruit set was 

 similar for all strains. Therefore, the abnor- 

 mally large amount of lateral bloom and high 

 fruit set of these lateral fruit is typical for 

 standard Gala and several of its red coloring 

 strains. 



Table 3. Effects of postbloom thinning treatments on fruit set and size of 

 Royal Gala apples. 



*A11 thinning treatments were significantly different from the control at odds 

 of 99:1. 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1992 



