No abstract

'Budjump' is the popular collective tenn for floral bud disorders occurring in some nashi cultivars grown in New Zealand. On affected trees some floral buds abort, disintegrating when touched. Other floral buds produce fewer flowers, and flower parts may be incompletely developed. Black, shrivelled flower buds can be found among subtending leaves and flowers. Occurrence of the disorder varies greatly between individual trees, cultivars, locations, and seasons. No causal mechanism has been identified and there are no established control methods for bud jump.

No abstract

Machine harvesting raspberries often produces lower yields than hand picking. Total yield loss is not completely accounted for by adding individual yield component losses to saleable yields. Conversion of fmit weights to fruit numbers using weighted mean berry weights specific to each yield loss component reduces this discrepancy. Suggestions for refining this technique are made. Continual use of machine harvesting further reduces fmit yields compared to those from hand picking. Summation of fruit numbers from each yield loss component cannot account for yield differences between machine and hand picking after machine harvesting is used for more than one season. It may, however, enable a more accurate estimate of the adverse effect of longterm machine harvesting on fruit production. Proportions of fmit in ripe, green, and diseased categories from tagged laterals were dissimilar to those in machine harvested yields. The number of laterals used was inadequate to determine accurately the fate of raspberry fmit.

No abstract