Abstract
THE abscission or dropping of apple and other fruits after fertilization is sometimes a valuable natural method of tellening the crop, but is often the source of muel loss of fruit. L. C. Luckwill has studied the relation to this 'drop' of a hormone in apple seeds (J. Hort. Sci., 24, No. 1, 32 ; June1948). He devised a quantitative method of measuring the hormone extract by treatment of tomato ovaries (ibid., 19) and was able to show that the appearance of the hormone in the seed coincided with cessation of the post-blossom drop. In the variety Beauty of Bath, the hormone appeared 25-30 days after petal-fall. Seeds of nearly ripe apples had little hormone, and its disappearance corresponded with the occurrence of pre-harvest dropping of the fruit. Moreover, seeds from 'June-drop' fruitlets of two other varieties contained much less hormone than those of fruits which remained on the tree. This hormone can be extracted from the seeds with boiling water, and though it stimulates the development of tomato ovaries, it does not appear to initiate fruit growth in the apple. It does, in fact, appear to be concerned chiefly with the control of fruit drop.
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Hormones and 'Drop' of Apple Fruits. Nature 163, 437 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163437b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163437b0