Phenophases of blossoming and picking maturity and their relationships in twenty apricot genotypes for a period of six years

Abstract

Phenological phases (phenophases) are morphologically and functionally distinct development stages of the plant which repeat themselves in the growing season. The most important and very visible phenological phases in apricots are "beginning of blossoming", "beginning of picking maturity" and "end of picking maturity". Even though the different phenophases are influenced by the genetic nature of the plant, their course also depends on external conditions of the given year.Many authors throughout the world have evaluated the phenophases of apricots. MEHLENBACHER et al. (1998/99) reported that in northern areas the differences between the blossoming phenophases of different genotypes, from the earliest to the latest blossoming ones, reach an amplitude a little higher than a week. These differences are a consequence of different reactions of genotypes to the rise of temperatures after dormancy. Having tested seven cultivars of the species Prunus armeniaca L., VACHŮN (1974) found out that the temperatures from 7° to 9°C determined the start of the phenophase "beginning of the budflush". However it does not exclude the influence of lower temperatures. BAŽANT et al. (1999) reported that the date of apricot blossoming was also influenced by the sum of active temperatures above 5.5°C.The beginning of blossoming of the same cultivar from year to year can differ by 25 to 40 days depending on the cultivar and on the conditions of the year (VACHŮN 1986;KRŠKA 1994;BAŽANT et al. 1999;VACHŮN 2002). Even though the period of "beginning of blossoming" for the same cultivar differs from year to year, the classification of cultivars according to this phenophase shows that their rank is statistically significant to highly significant (r = 0. ABSTRACT:The phenophase course in a group of 20 apricot genotypes was evaluated in South Moravian conditions in Lednice, Czech Republic, from 1994 to 1999. The evaluated phases were as follows: "beginning of blossoming", "beginning of picking maturity" and "end of picking maturity". The aim was to evaluate the variability of these phenophases and their relationships. The amplitude of the phenophase "beginning of blossoming" did not exceed 9 days. The amplitude of phenophases between the different years was about three times higher than the average amplitude between the genotypes. The average amplitude of the factor "beginning of picking maturity" observed in all genotypes was 39 days, but a comparison between the years showed that the largest amplitude for a given genotype was only 16 days. No statistical correlation was found between the phenophases "beginning of blossoming" and "beginning of picking maturity" in any of the six observed years. The genotypes whose maturity occurs at the beginning or at the end of picking season showed higher year to year variability of the phenophase "beginning of picking maturity" than the genotypes maturing in the middle of the season. The rate of fruit development from blossoming to picking was considerably different depending on the apricot genotype. The...

Predicting apricot phenology using meteorological data

“…A greater variation of blooming time among cultivars was found in regions with a warmer climate, e.g., in Italy (Della Strada et al 1989) and Spain (Ruiz et al 2007). Vachůn (2003) also reported less interannual variation of MA than FF time of apricot and, interestingly, he found that the year with very late FF and small NDMA was the same year as in our data (1996). The similarities found in our data and the phenological data analysis of other authors indicate that the results from this study could be applicable to other regions with similar climatic conditions.…”

“…Szabó andNyéki (1999) in Hungary, andVachůn (2003) in the Czech Republic also found much greater variation of blooming time between years for single apricot cultivars than between cultivars within individual years. A greater variation of blooming time among cultivars was found in regions with a warmer climate, e.g., in Italy (Della Strada et al 1989) and Spain (Ruiz et al 2007).…”

Screening of differentially expressed genes during the end of endogenous dormancy of flower buds in Prunus armeniaca L.

“…A flower bud was considered to be flowering if it was in phenophase at the beginning of butonization and flowering, i.e. phase 'D' to 'F' according to Fleckinger and Grisvard (Vachůn 2003).…”

Evaluation of dormancy break in some selected peach (Prunus persica) cultivars

“…Numbers of flowers (i.e. stage F according the methodology of Fleckinger and Grisvard (Vachůn 2003) and numbers of rosy buds (stages D and E) were counted two weeks later. The day of endogenous dormancy break was defined as the date of annual shoot sampling when 50 and more percent of flowers and rosy buds (i.e.…”