Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the years 2014–15 and 2015–16 to examine the effect of Pseudomonas fluorescens (PBAP-27) and foliar spray of ferrous sulphate on flowering, fruiting and yield of peach cv. Flordaprince. It was laid in a split plot design and the treatments comprised no inoculation (I0) and inoculation (I1) of Pseudomonas fluorescens (PBAP-27) as main plot along with four levels of foliar spray of ferrous sulphate 0.5% i. e. F0 (no spray: water spray), F1 (single sprays), F2 (two sprays), F3 (three sprays) as sub-plot treatments. The results obtained from the investigation showed that the inoculation of P. fluorescens (PBAP-27) significantly increased number of marketable fruits per tree. Three foliar sprays of ferrous sulphate resulted in significant reduction in fruit drop. The foliar spray was also significant in increasing number of marketable fruits per tree. A significant interaction was noted between P. fluorescens (PBAP-27) inoculation and foliar spray of ferrous sulphate for retaining more number of fruits per tree.