FLOWERING BEHAVIOUR OF 19 AVOCADO CULTIVARS IN CRETE

The duration of flowering and the sexual behaviour (male and female stages) of the flowers of 19 Avocado cvs were studied during 1988 in the experimental groves of the Institute for Subtropical Plants and Olive Trees in the area of Chania Crete.
The cvs studied were classified as very early, early, late and very late.
Flowering in the very early cvs started in January and lasted for 9–12 weeks while in the very late cvs lasted for 4–6 weeks and ended in the beginning of June.
Temperature had a considerable effect on the timing of flowering and the duration of flower opening.
During the period of March-April, in the cv Fuerte, the variation in flower opening and closure was great i.e. flowers: (a)opening as females in the morning (b)behaving as females and males simultaneously on the first opening (c) remaining open between the two stages (d)remaining closed for 24 hours after the first opening (e) with long duration of opening, were noticed on the same tree.
Therefore it was possible to find male and female flowers simultaneously on the same tree.

The comparison of flower behaviour between the cvs of type "B" FUERTE, BACON, NABAL and the type "A" ones HASS, RINCON, ANAHEIM and REED during May, showed that in FUERTE and NABAL there was no overlapping of male and female stages, while in BACON a partial overlapping for about one hour occurred.
In the cvs HASS, ANAHEIM and REED the length of time when both male and female flowers were observed on the same trees varied between 1 and 3 hours while in RINCON there was no overlapping.

International Symposium on Current Developments in Mediterranean Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Production and Research

M.H. Loupassaki, I.I. Androulakis, M. Vasilakakis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.365.8