NECTARINE CULTIVATION IN GREENHOUSE FOR EARLY HARVEST IN FRANCE: A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH REST AVOIDANCE

In the south of France, nectarine cultivation in greenhouse on artificial substrate has expanded since 1985, the aim being to supply the market with peaches earlier than those from the southern European countries.
The management system, derived from the Bellini system, has proved economically interesting until now, applied to the cultivar ‘Armking’.

As yet, the time and temperature of heating of the greenhouses have been empirically fixed.
So, we began to study the growth characteristics of the vegetative and floral buds on the shoots developing once the trees have been headed back (in June).

The vegetative buds, either the terminal or the axillary ones, did not seem to enter into true rest.
The floral buds growth was measurable as early as the beginning of October; it never stopped until blooming.
For the period ranging from the beginning of January to blooming, the relative growth rate was typical of buds free of dormance; it was lower during autumn.
The higher ratios of non bursting vegetative buds and non blooming floral buds observed on trees forced in the greenhouse in comparison with trees moved outside, were discussed in terms of residual dormancy, differentiation problems or inhibitive correlations.

II International Peach Symposium

R. Rageau, G. Ridray

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.254.21