Alar (Noun)
Meaning
A chemical sprayed on fruit trees to regulate their growth so the entire crop can be harvested at one time.
Classification
Nouns denoting substances.
Examples
- Farmers sprayed alar on their apple trees to ensure they could be harvested at the same time for the best market price.
- The company denied that their use of alar posed a significant health risk to consumers who ate the treated fruit.
- Some orchard owners decided to stop using alar after a television report questioned its safety for the fruit pickers who handled the sprayed trees.
- A small group of growers successfully harvested their pear trees without alar, instead using natural methods to regulate their fruiting cycle.
- Despite concerns about its impact on human health, alar remained widely used on fruit trees throughout the 1980s.