Yield Components in ‘Montmorency’ and ‘Meteor’ Sour Cherry

Abstract

Two sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) cultivars ‘Montmorency’ and ‘Meteor’ were evaluated over two seasons to determine the relative importance of different components of yield. A path coefficient analysis was performed to determine the direct and indirect effects of primary, secondary, and tertiary components on limb yield. Fruit number, fruit weight, the number of lateral buds and spurs, and fruit set were found to be the most important components affecting limb yield in both cultivars. However, the fruiting habits of the two cultivars were significantly different. ‘Montmorency’ produced 68% of its fruit on lateral buds on 1-year-old wood, while ‘Meteor’ had 70% of its fruit on 2-year-old spurs. When the data were standardized by dividing by limb cross-sectional area, ‘Meteor’ had a higher flower bud density (number of flowers/cm2) and yield efficiency (grams of fruits/cm2) than ‘Montmorency’. Although ‘Meteor’ had higher limb yields than ‘Montmorency’, the ‘Montmorency’ trees sampled had about four times more limbs than ‘Meteor’, and, therefore, higher tree yields.

Evaluation of reproduction biology of Prunus cerasoides

“…Prunus biology-related characteristics, including flower bud density, number of flowers per bud, number of flowering nodes per branch, flower bud drop, flower quality, or fruit set, have an impact on production (Garcia-Montiel et al, 2010). According to Chang et al (1987) reproductive bud and fruit set counts are the most important yield factors. Estimating bloom density and fruit set for any genotype is an important step in the breeding process.…”

Effect of Pruning System on Yield Components of Two Summer-bearing Raspberry Cultivars

“…Because developmental processes of the vegetative and fruiting phases are not temporally separated, the possibility of competition within or among these phases exists. There is much evidence that suggests that com petition occurs among yield components of fruit crops because of limiting resources; this results in negative relationships among components of yield (2,7,8,15,18). Resources that limit raspberry production have not been determined; however, several researchers have implicated light and assimilates as possible factors (21,23,26).…”