Mycorrhiza, plate's avain fertilizer and calcium application effects on the yield and quality of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruit

Calcium is an essential element affecting fruit quality. Fruits that have enough calcium have greater capability to transport and warehousing (2, 21 and 22). Mycorrhizal symbiosis due to the increases uptake of water and nutrients, as well as due to increases photosynthesis activities, can increases plant biomass (36 and 37). Plants with mycorrhizal symbiosis, has better growth and higher yield and show greater resistance to stresses (40). Manure can improve soil organic matter and soil health (3 and 6). Amiri and Fallahi (2009) reported that by use of manure in apple, yield and average fruit weight significantly increases (3). In order to study the main and combined effects of mycorrhiza, calcium and manure on the pomegranate production, this research was conducted in Fars province.
In order to achieve the desired goals, in 2014, an experiment were conducted as factorial in a randomized completely block design with 12 treatments in three replicates. Experimental factors were included combinations of two levels of 0 and 500 g.tree-1 mycorrhiza, three levels of 0, 250 and 500 g.tree-1 manure and two treatments of without foliar spray and foliar spray of calcium chloride with 0.5% concentration. Treatments were carried out on two ten-year-old pomegranate trees with almost uniform growing conditions. The measured traits were including yield per tree, contents of pH, berix, carbohydrates and phenolic acids (sinapic acid, gallic acid, catechin, rutin and ascorbic acid) in the pomegranate fruits. All obtained data were analyzed with SAS software.
Results and Discussion The results showed that main effects of different treatments on the decreasing of pomegranate juice acidity were significant. Mycorrhiza application, except sinapic acid, significantly (P The results showed that application of mycorrhiza, manure and calcium spraying in pomegranates are very effective in increasing of its production and improving its quality. The highest yield (24.04 kg.tree-1) were obtained from combined application of 500 g.tree-1 mycorrhiza, 500 g.tree-1 of manure and calcium chloride spray which in compared with the control treatment showed 42.6% increase in yield. In general, due to one year of testing, to achieve more reliable results need to investigate further.