Abstract
‘Nishimura-Wase’ persimmon is one of the important cultivars for commercial culture in Japan. ‘Nishimura-Wase’ tends to bear many more staminate flowers but fewer pistillate flowers with age or weakening of tree vigor, which causes decrease yield. For this reason, it is very important to have well-nutritious shoots bearing numerous pistillate flowers to maintain stable yields. Water shoots must be pruned during growing season, because it disturbs both tree form and sunlight condition. In this study, we tried to form fruiting mother shoots from water shoots by pinching in springtime. Summer shoots growing from water shoots by pinching from May to June bear many pistillate flowers and fewer staminate flowers than normal shoots. Pinched water shoots that never sprouted a summer shoot also bear almost the same numbers of pistillate flowers and fewer staminate flowers as compared to normal shoots. Although there was no difference in the numbers of flowers among pinching date, pinching in early May is more recommended, because the percentage of summer shoots sprouted from water shoots is higher than that of after late May. There was no difference in the fruit quality among experimental plots. Based on these findings, pinching water shoots from May to June could be applied to form fruiting mother shoots for the next year.
