Productivity of Citrus latifolia plants subjected to branch girdling

Abscission of flowers and fruit in Citrus latifolia cultivars is more intense than in seeded Citrus ones. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of branch girdling in C. latifolia fruit fixation. The work was carried out in an orchard of C. latifolia grafted onto three-year-old Citrus limonia spaced 3x1, located in the Goias State University experimental field. The experiment was set up according to the randomized block design with four treatments (girdling of 0, 25, 50 and 100% of the branches existing in the plant), five replications, parcels of four usable plants and total of 20 plants. Girdling was accomplished on 29/08/2014 and full flowering occurred on 13/09/2014. The plants that had 100% of their branches girdled presented high productivity of fruit with low juice volume. Those with 50% of branches girdled showed higher productivity and good juice yield per fruit. Results indicate that total blocking of transportation of assimilation from the canopy to the root system has negative impact on the volume of fruit juice.   Key words: Tahiti lime, carbohydrates, citrus culture, photoassimilates.