Articles
VARIABILITY IN THE BLOOMING TIME OF APRICOT VARIETIES IN HUNGARY
Article number
538_20
Pages
139 – 141
Language
Abstract
The exact knowledge of blooming time of apricot varieties is important from two aspects.
One of them is the selection of pollen donor partners and the other is the avoiding of spring frost injuries.
For these purposes the blooming period of 20 apricot varieties of different origin was observed in six subsequent years.
There was large difference in the beginning of blooming in the different years, with a maximum of more than one month.
The two extremes occurred in 1996 and in 1998. In 1996 blooming started extremely late at April 19, while in 1998 blooming started at March 3 as the earliest.
The length of the blooming period was between 5 and 23 days in the different years.
Based on our observation the length of the blooming period is inversely related to the date of the beginning of blooming and also to the temperature.
High temperatures hasten the blooming.
The observed varieties were classified into three groups according to their blooming time. ‘Fracasso’, ‘Lambertin No 1’, ‘Latter Sabatini’ and ‘Rosé Fournes’ belonged to the early blooming group.
The most important members of the middle group were ‘Callatis’, ‘Hargrand’, ‘Litoral’, ‘Orange Red’, while for example ‘Comandor’, ‘Harglow’ and ‘Sulmona’ were late blooming.
The rate of overlapping of blooming period also was observed.
Sufficient overlap for safe pollination is usually ensured within the same group of varieties or between varieties of the neighbouring blooming time groups.
One of them is the selection of pollen donor partners and the other is the avoiding of spring frost injuries.
For these purposes the blooming period of 20 apricot varieties of different origin was observed in six subsequent years.
There was large difference in the beginning of blooming in the different years, with a maximum of more than one month.
The two extremes occurred in 1996 and in 1998. In 1996 blooming started extremely late at April 19, while in 1998 blooming started at March 3 as the earliest.
The length of the blooming period was between 5 and 23 days in the different years.
Based on our observation the length of the blooming period is inversely related to the date of the beginning of blooming and also to the temperature.
High temperatures hasten the blooming.
The observed varieties were classified into three groups according to their blooming time. ‘Fracasso’, ‘Lambertin No 1’, ‘Latter Sabatini’ and ‘Rosé Fournes’ belonged to the early blooming group.
The most important members of the middle group were ‘Callatis’, ‘Hargrand’, ‘Litoral’, ‘Orange Red’, while for example ‘Comandor’, ‘Harglow’ and ‘Sulmona’ were late blooming.
The rate of overlapping of blooming period also was observed.
Sufficient overlap for safe pollination is usually ensured within the same group of varieties or between varieties of the neighbouring blooming time groups.
Authors
L. Szalay, J. Papp, Z. Szabó
Keywords
Prunus armeniaca, blooming period, pollen donors
Online Articles (139)