CROP POTENTIAL OF RED CURRANT FROM AUTUMN UNTIL HARVEST

The number of floral buds and flower initials, and the development of flower initials into flowers and berries were examined in two red currant (Ribes rubrum L.) cultivars.
At four dates from autumn until harvest time 4-year-old erect and inclined branches were collected at random.
Each sample consisted of a leading shoot (current season’s growth) and of short shoots and long shoots growing from axillary buds of the previous season’s growth.
At each sampling date about one thousand buds were examined.

The crop potential of the branches just before the harvest time was about one fourth of that in the previous autumn.
In many buds flower initials aborted during the winter, more on the inclined than on the erect branches.
The number of flower initials per bud was higher on the erect branches than on the inclined ones.
In ‘Red Dutch’ all the flower initials in a bud developed into flowers, or the whole initial of inflorescence aborted.
In ‘Rotes Wunder’ the number of flowers was 1 to 2 lower than the number of flower initials per bud.
In ‘Red Dutch’ 31% of flowers developed into berries, in ‘Rotes Wunder’ 49 %. The decline in the crop potential was mainly due to the abortion of flower initials in winter and to the drop of unripe berries.

VI International Symposium on Rubus and Ribes

P. Palonen, I. Voipio

floral bud, flower initial, fruit set, Ribes rubrum

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.352.27