EFFECT OF SPRAYING USING SOME CALCIUM SOURCES ON PRODUCTIVITY AND FRUIT QUAL-ITY OF POMEGRANATE TREES (PUNICA GRAN-ATUM L.)

This investigation aimed to study the effect of spraying by some calcium sources on productivity and quality of pomegranate fruits. The experiment was, arranged in a split-plot design on Wonderful cv. of pomegranate trees grown at Hegazy private orchard located at kilo 57 west of Cairo-Alexandria desert road, Giza governorate,de Egypt during two successive seasons of 2019 and 2020. All spraying treatments with calcium gave positive results in terms of vegetative growth and productivity, whether it was sprayed once every week, two weeks, or three weeks during the stage of complete growth to maturity from mid of May until mid of August in both seasons, compared to the control treatments that were treated with water only. On the other hand, all the tested applications significantly increased the growth of trees as well as significantly improved the yield and fruit quality and reduced the unmarketable fruit and cracking percentage. Spraying calcium nitrate at 4% sprayed once weekly gave the highest values of growth traits, yield and fruit quality. It is recommended to spray Wonderful pomegranate trees with calcium sources once a week to get better vegetative growth, high yield with good fruit quality.