Articles
ADVANCEMENT OF RIPENING OF APRICOT AND SWEET CHERRY. PRELIMINARY STUDY WITH A MOBILE ORCHARD SYSTEM.
The method adopted was that of the mobile orchard system which is used in Israel commercially on a small scale with peaches and nectarines.
Based on the same principles of exposing container grown trees to artificial chilling in autumn followed by growing the trees outdoors in warm locations or under polyethylene cover, a preliminary study was conducted with apricots (cv.
Canino and Sayeb) and sweet cherry (Cv.
Burlat and pollinators). Sweet cherry trees grafted to the mahaleb rootstock and apricots on apricot seedlings were grown in 151 plastic bags or plastic containers filled with volcanic tuff and fertigated regularly.
In 1990 chilled trees were transferred in autumn to Hamat Gader in the Jordan valley area at 100 m below sea level and grown under a net.
The apricot trees bloomed already in early January while the sweet cherries reached full bloom by late January.
Good quality apricots were ripening starting from late March, 7 weeks prior to that of the corresponding cultivars in the coastal plain of Israel.
With sweet cherries, Burlat ripened in mid march a 6 weeks advanced ripening. 0.5 to 1.0 kg/tree of fruit was harvested a yield corresponding to 5 to 10 T/ha at a density of 10000 trees/ha.
Apricots were transferred after chilling also to a greenhouse in Kfar Hanania in the lower Galilee mountains (400 m elevation) during 1989–1990. Fruit ripening was advanced by 3–4 weeks with average yields of 2.5 kg/tree.
Trials on tree training for this system and selection of cultivars are underway.
The next stage we are following, is to test the potential for exposing the trees to natural conditions in the high mountains and to move the trees in mid winter to the sea of Gallilee basin at 200 m below sea level.