Fruit Drop

• Most of the commercial varieties of apple exhibit 3 cycles of fruit drop viz., early drop, June drop and pre-harvest drop.
• The early drop is considered natural and is due to lack of pollination and fruit competition.
• Moisture stress and environmental conditions cause the June drop.
• These two drops neither cause substantial economic losses nor are controlled effectively by artificial means.
• The preharvest drop causes serious economic loss as the full-grown marketable fruits abscise before the harvest due to the reduction in the levels of auxins.

Control

• The pre-harvest drop can be controlled by application with NAA (15 ppm) sprayed 20 days before the expected fruit drop or 20-25 days before the harvest.