Effect of Branching Angle on Fruit-bearing of Pear Trees

The current-year new branches on 3-year-old Cuiguan peartrees grownon plane trellis in a non-skirt-film-coveragegreenhouse were trained to become erect, oblique or horizontal on the plants. The branch angling effects on the floral budformation of the trees were monitored. It was found that, on the horizontal branches, the rate of floral bud formation was 1.60 times higher than that of the oblique and 3.53 times of the erect branches;and, on the oblique branches,the rate was 2.20 times higher than the erect branches. From the 2nd to the 3rdyear, the fruit setting rate of inflorescences and flowers, fruit count ona single branch, and individual fruitweightof the pear trees with branches angled horizontally were significant or extremely significantly higher than those of the trees with branches bented at lesserdegrees. The coefficient of variance on fruit weight of the trees with horizontal branches was extremely significantlylower than those of the other two counterparts. However, there was no significant difference found between the trees with oblique and erect branches. The nutrient contents of the fruits from the 3 treatment groups were similar. Thus, aside from the chemical composition, training the tree branches to spread horizontally, or close to that, could result in desirable improvements on the bearing, development, yield, and uniformlylarge size of the pears.