Effect of Decapitation and Suckers Removal on Growth and Yield Traits of Pomegranate Punica granatum L. Cv. Salimi

Abstract

An experiment was conducted out at a private orchard from Baharke town of Erbil province during 2016 season on pomegranate cv. Salimi. The age of trees was 13 years. Branches of one year old branches decapitated in February with three levels of 25, 50 and 75%. Suckers also were removed once in Feb, April and June. Results showed that 50% decapitation of branches + removal for twice of suckers gave the highest average for all vegetative and fruit traits as branches length and diameter, leaf area, leaf dry material and fruit size of 25.21cm, 25.13mm, 8.001cm2, 84.86%, 107.0 fruit tree-1 and 33.23mm respectively. Furthermore this treatment reduced fruit drop percentage up to 4.33 %. It could be extracted that deputation and sucker removal were efficient to improve growth and yield components. Thus, accordingly, it is necessary to apply decapitation and removal of suckers to increase fruit yield of pomegranates.