A. R. Biggs, West Virginia University, University Experiment Farm. P. O. Box 609, Kearneysville, WV 25430, and R. A. Cline, Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario, Vineland Staion, Ontario, Canada L0R 2E0.

ABSTRACT

Biggs, A. R. And R. A. Cline. 1986. Influence of irrigation on wound response in peach bark. Can. J. Plant Pathol. 8:405-408.

The effects of irrigation treatments on the rate of necrophylactic periderm formation in wounds on scaffold limbs of peach (Prunus persica cvs. Candor and Redhaven) were examined. Treatment differences in wound response rate, as measured by the intensity of suberin autofluorescence and visual observation, could not be discerned at days 7 or 10 after wounding in either cultivar; thus irrigation did not influence formation of he primary ligno-suberized boundary zone. Significant differences due to irrigation were measured by the 14th day after wounding in the cv. Candor and were related to greater numbers of suberized necrophylactic phellem cells. Lignin deposition in the boundary zone, as measured by autofluorescence intensity, was not influenced by irrigation. In the cultivar Redhaven necrophylactic periderm generation rate was not influenced by irrigation.