Apical Dominance and Apical Control in Apples

Branching in apples is determined by two main mechanism. these are apical dominance (paradormancy) and apical control (acrotony). apical dominance is the inhibition exerted by the shoot apex over axillary bud outgrowth, whereas apical control is the repression of a lateral branch growth by dominating branchs above it. these mechanisms determined the canopy development are under control genetic factors such as rootstock and variety. the effects of the apical mechanims can be reduced with different applications such as heading and the use of plant growth regulators such as 6-benzyladenine (ba). understanding these mechanisms are important for branched nursery tree production, pruning and training. hormones, environmental factors, nutritional effects, assimilate allocation and gravimorphism may affect branching process. in this study, studies about apical mechanisms were examined, the gathered information was summarised and the results of scientific research which producers can tranfer into practice are presented.