FACTORS AFFECTING THE FRUIT SIZE OF “HAYWARD” KIWIFRUIT

During a two year’s period a study was conducted in Pieria area to determine the most important factors affecting the fruit size of "Hayward" kiwifruit.
It was noticed a 3 day earlier blooming of the male plants (protandry) without, however, being a limiting factor of pollination or fruit set.
Controlled pollination experiments showed that insects, and mainly bees, were the most important pollinators.
There was found a strong correlation between seed number /fruit and fruit size (r=0.816); fruits containing more than 1000 seeds could attain very good size.
However, in some orchards other factors than seed content were most probably responsible for small fruit size.
Fruit thinning affected the size of the fruit significantly.
Low Zn and Fe leaf content was found in almost all orchards tested.
It was concluded that small size was mainly due to fruit overloading of the vines especially in those years during which very many flowers (2–3/node) sustained on the flowering shoots.

III International Symposium on Kiwifruit

M. Vasilakakis, K. Papadopoulos, E. Papageorgiou

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.444.65