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Photosystem II (PSII) efficiency and CO₂ assimilation in response to photon flux density (PFD) and intercellular CO₂ concentration (Ci) were monitored simultaneously in leaves of apple, pear, apricot, and cherry with a combined system for measuring chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange. When photorespiration was minimized by low O₂ (2%) and saturated CO₂ (1300 ppm), a linear relationship was found between PSII efficiency and the quantum yield for CO₂ assimilation with altering PFD, indicating CO₂ assimilation in this case is closely linked to PSII activity. As PFD increased from 80 to 1900 μmol·m^–2·s^–1 under ambient CO₂ (350 ppm) and O₂ (21%) conditions, PSII efficiency decreased by increased nonphotochemical quenching and decreased concentration of open PSII reaction centers. The rate of linear electron transport showed a similar response to PFD as CO₂ assimilation. As Ci increased from 50 to 1000 ppm under saturating PFD (1000 μmol·m^–2·s^–1) and ambient O₂, PSII efficiency was increased initially by decreased nonphotochemical quenching and increased concentration of open PSII reaction centers and then leveled off with further a rise in Ci. CO₂ assimilation reached a plateau at a higher Ci than PSII efficiency because increasing Ci diverted electron flow from O₂ reduction to CO₂ assimilation by depressing photorespiration. It is concluded that PSII efficiency is regulated by both nonphotochemical quenching and concentration of open PSII reaction centers in response to light and CO₂ to meet the requirement for photosynthetic electron transport.

Bench-grafted `Fuji'/M.26 trees were sprayed with 1% CuEDTA on 31 Oct., defoliated manually on 12 Nov., or allowed to defoliate naturally. Foliar urea at 3% was applied at 14 days and 9 days before CuEDTA treatment. Plants were harvested after natural leaf fall and stored at 2 °C. One set of the plants were destructively sampled for reserve N (expressed as total Kjeldahl N or soluble protein concentration) analysis, and the remaining plants were transplanted into a N-free medium in the spring without any N supply for 40 days after budbreak. CuEDTA resulted in >80% defoliation within 5 days of application. Trees defoliated with CuEDTA had lower reserve N content than naturally defoliated controls, but had higher N than hand-defoliated controls. Foliar urea application before the CuEDTA treatment significantly increased reserve N level in all tree parts, without affecting the efficacy of CuEDTA on defoliation. The extent of spring regrowth was proportional to the reserve N level of the tree. Urea-treated plants, whether hand- or CuEDTA defoliated, had more growth in the spring than hand- or naturally defoliated controls. It is concluded that CuEDTA, as combined with foliar urea, can be used to effectively defoliate apple nursery trees, and increase reserve N level and improve regrowth performance during establishment.

Bench-grafted Fuji/M26 plants were fertigated with seven nitrogen concentrations (0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10, 15, and 20 mM) by using a modified Hoagland solution from 30 June to 1 Sept. In mid-October, half of the fertigated trees were sprayed with 3% urea twice at weekly intervals, while the other half were left as controls. The plants were harvested after natural leaf fall, stored at 2 °C, and then destructively sampled in January for reserve N and carbohydrate analysis. As N concentration used in fertigation increased, whole-plant reserve N content increased progressively with a corresponding decrease in reserve carbohydrate concentration. Foliar urea application increased whole-plant N content and decreased reserve carbohydrate concentration. The effect of foliar urea on whole-plant reserve N content and carbohydrate concentration was dependent on the N status of the plant, with low-N plants being more responsive than high-N plants. There was a linear relationship between the increase in N content and decrease in carbohydrate concentration caused by foliar urea, suggesting that part of the reserve carbohydrates was used to assimilate N from foliar urea. Regardless of the difference in tree size caused by N fertigation, the increase in the total amount of reserve N by foliar urea application was the same on a whole-tree basis, indicating that plants with low-N background were more effective in using N from urea spray than plants with high-N background.

Near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy was used to determine the chemical composition of fruit and nut trees. Potted almond and bench-grafted Fuji/M26 trees were fertigated during the growing season with different N levels by modifying the Hoagland to create different levels of nitrogen and carbohydrates in plant tissues during dormancy. Dried, ground, and sieved shoot, shank, and root samples were uniformly packed into NIR cells and scanned with a Foss NIRSystem 6500 monochromator from 400 to 2500 nm. Statistical and multiple linear regression methods were used to derive a standard error of performance and the correlation between NIR reading and standard chemical composition analysis (anthrone, Kjedahl and Ninhydrin methods for carbohydrate, total N, and amino acid analysis, respectively) were determined. The multiple determination coefficients (R ²) of apple and almond tissues were 0.9949 and 0.9842 for total nitrogen, 0.9971 and 0.9802 for amino acid, and 0.8889 and 0.8687 for nonstructural carbohydrate, respectively.

The expression g_ti, or tissue ionic conductance, was proposed to describe the efflux of ions from leaf disks (Whitlow et al., 1992, Plant Physiology, 98:198-205). The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the g_ti method to screen germplasm for heat and desiccation tolerance using representative selections of 5 Fragaria species. Leaf disks were exposed to 4 levels of heat, 25, 35, 45, and 55 C, and 4 levels of desiccation. 60, 70, 80 and 100% relative water content (RWC). F. virginiana glauca was consistently ranked as the leakiest in all treatments including controls, with g_ti values 70 to 100% higher than in the other species. Temperatures of 25 to 45 C did not influence g_ti over time. A temperature of 55 C was lethal to the tissue and, thus, the ion flux was initially very high but soon diminished. At 70% RWC F. virginiana glaucu tissue was the leakiest, and F. virginiana and F. vesca tissues were somewhat leakier than those of F. × ananassa and F. chiloensis. Differences among species diminished with time in bathing solutions.

Sorbitol (d-glucitol) is the major end product of photosynthesis in apple (Malus domestica Borkh.), as well as the predominant phloem-translocated carbohydrate. The mechanism by which sorbitol is phloem-loaded for transport to heterotrophic sink tissues is unknown. We hypothesized that a plasma membrane-bound H+/sorbitol symporter mediates apoplastic phloem-loading of sorbitol. To discover genes potentially encoding sorbitol transporters, a cDNA library was constructed from mature `Gala' apple leaves. A homologous probe was synthesized via PCR with primers were designed against the cherry fruit sorbitol transporter, PcSot1, and using library lysate as template. From an initial plating of approximately 5 × 10⁵ clones, twelve positives were identified after three rounds of hybridization screening. Following single-pass, 5' end sequencing, the clones were sorted into four contiguous sequences. One clone was chosen from each contig for complete sequencing. The four clones, provisionally named MdSOT1-4 (Malus domesitca Sorbitol Transporter), potentially encode full-length cDNAs for sorbitol transporters: Translated-BLAST searching (blastx) revealed that the open reading frames encode the complete Pfam sugar transporter domain, and the most significant alignments are with sequences encoding known- and putative polyol and sugar transporters.

Seedling plugs of `Early Girl' tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were potted in peatmoss and perlite (60:40% by volume) medium, fertilized with 8, 16, 24, or 32 g NutriCote Total controlled-release fertilizer (type 100, 13N–5.67P–10.79K plus micronutrients) per pot (2.81 l), and treated with 0%, 2.5%, 5%, or 7.5% antitranspirant GLK-8924 solution, at the four true-leaf stage. Plants were tipped at the second inflorescence and laterals were removed upon emergence. Leaf stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and growth were depressed by GLK-8924. In contrast, higher fertilization rate increased plant growth but leaf stomatal conductance and transpiration rate were not affected until 3 weeks after GLK-8924 treatment. With 24 g NutriCote per pot, lamina N concentration in GLK-8924 treated plants was 12.5-fold of that in untreated plants, regardless of GLK-8924 concentration. Lamina P, K, Fe, and Cu were greater while S, Ca, Mg, Mn, B, and Zn were not affected by GLK-8924. The reduced growth by GLK-8924 may be due to the reduced stomatal conductance while the increased growth by high fertilization may be due to influences on plant nutritional status.

Yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) can be a limiting nutritional factor for Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast when fermenting apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.) juice into hard cider. Endogenous YAN concentrations in apples are often below the recommended thresholds to completely use all of the fermentable sugar and minimize the production of off-flavors, such as hydrogen sulfide. Cider producers supplement apple juice with exogenous nitrogen to increase YAN. Urea, commonly applied to apple orchards to increase fruit size and yields, was tested for its ability to increase endogenous apple juice YAN. Starting 6 weeks before harvest in 2017 and 2018, a 1% urea solution was applied to ‘Red Spy’ apple trees one, three, or five times to create low-, medium-, and high-rate treatments, respectively. Relative to the control, the high treatment increased YAN by 229% in 2017 and by 408% in 2018. More than 90% of the YAN in all juice samples was composed of primary amino nitrogen (PAN). Among all treatments, PAN mostly comprised asparagine, and as urea applications increased, the relative concentration of asparagine also increased. Aspartic acid and then glutamic acid were the second and third most abundant amino acids in all treatments, respectively, but comprised less of the total PAN as the number of urea applications increased. Soluble solid concentration, pH, titratable acidity, and total polyphenol concentration were not different among treatments. There was a positive correlation between increased urea application rate and the maximum fermentation rate, which resulted in a shorter fermentation duration. Increasing the number of urea applications was also correlated with greater hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) production in juice fermented from fruit harvested in 2017 but not for fruit harvested in 2018. No residual H₂S was found in the finished cider from any treatment. Increasing the number of urea applications was estimated to be less expensive than supplementing the juice with Fermaid O™. There would have been no cost savings if Fermaid K™ was used as an exogenous nitrogen source. Foliar urea applications were estimated to be more expensive than supplementing juice with diammonium phosphate. This study demonstrated that foliar urea applications can effectively increase YAN concentration in cider apples while not negatively affecting other juice quality attributes.

The recent growth in the U.S. hard-cider industry has increased the demand for cider apples (Malus ×domestica Borkh.), but little is known about how to manage orchard soil fertility best to optimize horticultural performance and juice characteristics for these cultivars. To assess whether nitrogen fertilizer applied to the soil can improve apple juice and cider quality, calcium nitrate (CaNO₃) fertilizer was applied at different rates to the soil beneath ‘Golden Russet’ and ‘Medaille d’Or’ trees over the course of three growing seasons. The experiment started when the trees were in their second leaf. The trees were cropped in their third and fourth leaf. At the end of the first growing season of the experiment, the greatest fertilizer rate increased tree trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA) by 82% relative to the control, but this difference did not persist through to the end of the study. Yield and crop load were unaffected by the nitrogen fertilization treatments. Increasing the nitrogen fertilizer rate correlated positively with more advanced harvest maturity in ‘Golden Russet’ fruit, which resulted in greater soluble solid concentration (SSC). Fruit from the greatest fertilizer rate treatment had an average starch pattern index (SPI) that was 1 U greater than in the control, and an SSC that was 3% greater than the control. The fertilizer treatments did not affect juice pH, titratable acidity (TA), or total polyphenol concentrations. Yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) concentrations were increased by nitrogen fertilization for both cultivars in both harvest years. The greatest fertilizer treatment increased juice primary amino nitrogen by 103% relative to the control. Greater nitrogen fertilization rates correlated positively with less hydrogen sulfide production during the fermentation of ‘Golden Russet’ juice from the first, but not the second, harvest. During the first year, cumulative hydrogen sulfide production for the ‘Golden Russet’ control treatment was 29.6 μg·L^–1 compared with the ‘Golden Russet’ high treatment, which cumulatively produced 0.1 μg·L^–1. Greater maximum fermentation rates and shorter fermentation durations correlated positively with increased fertilization rate for both cultivars after the second harvest. High treatment fermentations had maximum fermentation rates 110% greater, and fermentation durations 30% shorter than the control. Other horticultural and juice-quality parameters were not affected negatively by the CaNO₃ treatments. In orchards producing apples specifically for the hard-cider industry, nitrogen fertilizer could increase juice YAN, thus reducing the need for exogenous additions during cider production.