Sweet cherry yield, fruit quality and water productivity under rainfed conditions in eastern Free State

Adequate supply of water and nutrients are essential during all growth stages from flowering until the next dormancy period for sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) trees.
This study investigated the relationship between seasonal rainfall (November to March) and fruit yield, fruit quality attributes, and water productivity under rainfed conditions in 2017, 2018 and 2019 on a 25-year-old sweet cherry orchard block.
The cultivars which the individual quality attributes measurements were conducted on were ‘Giant Hiedelfinger’, ‘Bing’, ‘Vista’ and ‘Larian’, which are dominant in terms of ha covered in the orchard.
Fruits were totalled, and fruit size, fruit weight and total soluble solids (TSS) content were recorded.
Fruits harvested in November were denser, weighing an average of 8.01 g while fruits harvested in October had an average weight of 7.49 g for the 2018 growing season.
TSS ranged between 13.00 and 24.00 °Brix.
During the 2019 growing season, individual fruit weights followed the same trend as 2018 even though during October 2019, all cultivars weighed less than that of October 2018. The fluctuating yield from year to year showed alternate bearing with “on-off” climatic conditions resulting in a higher yield in 2018 compared with the 2017 and 2019 growing seasons (based on the total kg ha^‑1 harvested for most of the cultivars in the study block). Water productivity values for the 2018 growing season were also consistently the highest across all other years.

IV All Africa Horticultural Congress – AAHC2021: Transformative Innovations in Horticulture

P.C. Tharaga

cultivars, fruit weight, yield, total soluble solid, water productivity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1348.15