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Economic figures of apple production at national level of Hungary
103-105.Views:20453Apple is the most important fruit in Hungary, despite of that, it is a paradox that during the last years, apple growing was the most unsuccessful enterprise among the prosperous ones in the country. The real cause of regression was unequivocally the low price, which could be obtained and the inadequate structure of apple varieties. A heavy problem is still the overweight of the quality doomed to supplying the processing industry instead to the fresh consumption. In order to improve the conditions, we aimed the economic analysis of the five year long period, 2005-2009, to trace the changes involving values and costs of production, income and all conditions combined with this activity. The data presented in the paper are means of a heterogeneous population of values, which cannot be utilised for immediate use in management, but they may reveal the challenges and tendencies of that branch in economics.
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Acceptance of artificial nesting sites by pollinating mason bees in commercial fruit plantations (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae: mixed Osmia cornuta and O. rufa population)
43-46.Views:822During a four yeas long experiment a simple bee shelterswas found to be a propermethod to increase the size ofmixed natural populations of the early season Osmia cornuta and O. rufa under practical farm conditions. Instead of the number of pesticide applications the earliness of the flowering of the fruit species in the orchards was found to be themost important factor in the rate of acceptance of reed as nestingmediumby Osmias in the bee shelter. This relationship was negative and highly significant (r = –0.829, p<0.001). This means that much higher acceptance of artificial nestingmedia in bee shelters and consequentlymuch higher population increase of the two early seasonmason bee species can be expected in orchards with early than with late flowering fruit species. Mixed orchards or early flowering orchards surrounded by other orchards falling in bloom later consecutively may also be much favourable to mason bees because they can find continuous food (pollen) supply there for a much longer time during their period of activity than in orchards planted with a single fruit species and being apart from orchards of other fruit species.
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Fruit drop: II. Biological background of flower and fruit drop
103-108.Views:744The most important components of fruit drop are: the rootstock, the combination of polliniser varieties, the conditions depending of nutrition, the extent and timing of the administration of fertilisers, the moments of water stress and the timing of agrotechnical interventions. Further adversities may appear as flushes of heat and drought, the rainy spring weather during the blooming period as well as the excessive hot, cool or windy weather impairing pollination, moreover, the appearance of diseases and pests all influence the fate of flowers of growing and become ripe fruits. As generally maintained, dry springs are causing severe fruit drop.
In analysing the endogenous and environmental causes of drop of the generative organs (flowers and fruits), the model of leaf abscission has been used, as a study of the excised, well defined abscission zone (AZ) seemed to be an adequate approach to the question. Comparing the effects active in the abscission of fruit with those of the excised leaf stem differences are observed as well as analogies between the anatomy and the accumulation of ethylene in the respective abscission tissues.
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Effect of boron nutrition on nutrient uptake and fruit quality of tart cherry in Eastern Hungary
45-48.Views:545Effect of the foliar boron (B) application on nutrient uptake and fruit quality of tart cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) was investigated from 2008 to 2009 on mature four favourite Hungarian tart cherry cultivars like ‘Oblacsinszka’, ‘Érdi bôtermő’, ‘Újfehértói fürtös’ and ‘Petri’. Tart cherry trees grown in Eastern Hungary (Újfehértó) on an acidic sandy soil with low B content. Trees were treated with B by foliar application (0.5% B) at full bloom and untreated with B served as a control. B sprays strongly affected on B content of inflorescences. However, B sprays had no consistent effect on summer leaf B status. In our experiment stronger year effect was observed at leaf B status than flower B status. The effectiveness of early spring boron applications are limited and mostly affected the flower B status only. Moreover, treatments had inconsistent effect on studied fruit inner parameters. Monosaccharides, vitamin C and organic acid contents of sour cherry were stronger affected by cultivars than applied treatments.
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Assessment of apple varieties based on consumer judgement on their fruits of organic production for fresh consumption
87-90.Views:658The lack of information is often cause of the insufficiency of attributes being developed and appears on the new commodity characterising its utility. Neither own nor other information is presented. For improving this handicap, we endeavoured to praise apple products grown by biological methods and explain their properties as taste, skin, colour, consistency, and size. In addition, we explore the relation between general impression and the individual properties. The scrutiny starts with collecting of primary data on 9 samples taken from biologically grown apple varieties kept over 60–90 days in a store and offered to the consumers. The test is based on an organoleptic assessment (records are registered in a questionnary). The individual judgements are processed and coefficients of correlation between the traits (taste, skin, size, colour) calculated. The validity of the mathematically proved relations is considered to be decisive judging the preferences in consumption of fruits.
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Bee pollination and association of apricot varieties
20-24.Views:893Apricot yields are highly variable according to the season. The variation is caused mainly by the adversities during the critical processes of floral biology, i.e. blooming and fertilisation. On the basis of information concerning blooming time and mutual compatibility relations of apricot varieties a system of securing regular and adequate yields has been developed.
Winter frosts of the continental type are well tolerated by most of the apricots, however, after the end of rest period, flower buds are loosing frost tolerance, 'rapidly.
Being one of the fruit species blooming earliest during the early spring, apricot start to bloom in Hungary around the end of March or early April as a mean of many years, but it also happened, exceptionally that apricot started to bloom at February 20 (at Letenye South Hungary). The early season, exposes the floral organs to frost injuries. As a consequence, apricot orchards on the Great Plain produce low yields in 3 years, intermediate yields in other 3 years out of a ten-year-period.
Moreover, weather conditions during the blooming period are often unfavourable for pollination. Cool, windy and rainy weather prevents the flight of insects and on the other hand, warm spells shorten the blooming process, nectarines and stigmata get dry and the female gametes loose viability before effective pollination occurres.
The fertility of individual cultivars are meeting different obstacles. Apricot cultivars differ greatly in the rate of flowers bearing underdeveloped pistils, which may attain even 60% (e.g. Orangered). New commercial cultivars are often self-incompatible. Local varieties of that type in Hungary are the „óriás" varieties (e.g. Ceglédi óriás, Szegedi mammut), and the new hybrid Ceglédi Piroska. Many of the cultivars are variable in their self-fertility (partially self-fertile): Budapest, Harmat, Korai piros, Mandulakajszi.
Inter-incompatibility is also known in apricots. The „óriás " varieties do not fertilise each other. During the growth of fruits, cool spells (2-4 °C) caused severe fruit shed in Ceglédi óriás.
Apricot flowers produce pollen and nectar at average rates related to other fruit species, thus bees are attracted sufficiently. Bee visits are very variable according to growing site and season. Most of the bees are pollen gatherers but sometimes nectar suckers are in majority. Bee pollination is necessary not only for the self-incompatible varieties but also to enhance the yield of self-fertile varieties.
Taking the blooming and fertility relations of the cultivars into account, plantations should not exceed two rows to a particular self-incompatible varieties, and possibly two different polliniser varieties are suggested to be planted as flanking the block in question.
In commercial plantations 2 to 4 bee colonies per hectare are proposed to move for the whole blooming period.
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The use of rootstocks for European (Prunus domestica) and for Japanese (Prunus salicina) plums (review)
7-13.Views:866The worldwide tendency to increase the intensity of fruit growing technologies prefers generally for every fruit species rootstocks with week or mediocre vigour. From this viewpoint, the use of rootstocks for plums are rather unilateral in Hungary, where 95–99% of plum plantations are grafted on mirobalan seedlings (P. cerasifera v. mirobalana). The score of plum rootstocks abroad is much more diversified. The present study summarises the respective knowledge referring to the literature available.
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Characterization of sunburn damage to apple fruits and leaves
15-20.Views:1372The specific conditions of the formation of three different types of sunburn (sunburn browning, sunburn necrosis, and photooxidative sunburn) have been recently characterized on apple fruit. However, no information is still available on leaf damage. Therefore, the aims of this study were i) to extend the knowledge on fruit damage, ii) characterize leaf damage and iii) find relationship between fruit and leaf damage. The observations were made on 586 apple accessions in a gene bank orchard located in Hungary. The incidence of the three different types of fruit symptoms were recorded and based on the visual symptoms, two different types of leaf sunburn (sunburn yellowing and sunburn necrosis) were characterized. The most frequent type of fruit sunburn observed was sunburn browning. Photooxidative sunburn was found for less number of accessions, and only some accessions were affected by sunburn necrosis. Fruit were far more susceptible than leaves; (>60%) of the examined accessions were affected by fruit damage and (<3%) by leaf damage. Although a large number of accessions were affected, the percentage of fruit damaged within accessions was not that excessive; ~6% of the fruit assessed showed the symptoms of sunburn browning. Significantly fewer fruit were damaged by sunburn necrosis (~1%) or photooxidative sunburn (~1.4%) than sunburn browning. The percentage of leaves damaged within accessions were simlarly very low (~1%). Close relationship between fruit and leaf damage was found. Accesions with relatively heavily sunburned leaves usually had severe fruit damage as well. Leaves showing sunburn symptoms were usually closely located around those fruit which were sunburned severely. Leaf damage of sunburn was found on spur leaves in a great majority of the accessions damaged, shoot leaves did not seem to be susceptible to sunburn.
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Comparative study of effects of a complex fertilizer and a biostimulator on macroelement content of leaf and fruit quality on sweet cherry (Prunus avium)
91-94.Views:643In this study. we are partly focusing on consumer acceptance of fruit, like fruit cracking, weight and flavours, and maturation, fruit density and content of nutrients which are undelie consumer acceptance, and important equally to the growers and marketers. the results on the dynamics of N-uptake corresponded ti thephenological phases of cherry and independent on the applied treatments. Younger leaves contain more N than elder due to the effective N uptake of young leaves. Based on the measurements conducted in June, the P content of leaves was in low P supply category at the control and the Benefit treatment, while was in the lower range of optimal category at Damisol treatment. According to our measurements, the K of cherry leaves decreases continuosly until September, expcept the control at which it increased from the end of June to September. the fruit weight was increased significantly by applying Benefit PZ. the best results for fruit cracing observed at Benefit treatment too. The best result for fruit density was observed at Damisol treatment.
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Association of European plum varieties in the orchards
21-24.Views:868The flowering phenology, blooming time and inter-fertility relations of 63 European plum varieties has been studied at growing sites with different ecological conditions during a 10 year long period. The purpose was to develop a system of variety combinations which approaches an optimum in fertility as long as inter-fertility relations will cease to be a limiting factor of yield. According to their blooming time, varieties are assigned to 5 groups: very early, early, medium, late and very late. As for their fertility relations, four groups are formed: self-sterile (0%), partially self-fertile (0.1 to 10 %), self-fertile (10.1 to 20 %) and highly self-fertile (more than 20 % fruit set with self pollination). The four categories of fruit set at free pollination are also relevant to the grower: low (less than 10 %), medium (10 to 20 %), high (20 to 40 %) and very high (more than 40 % fruit set).
By artificial cross pollination, one combination Cacanska najbolja x Stanley proved to be mutually inter-incompatible. Blocks planted to a single self-sterile variety flanking a pollinizer variety proved the spacial distribution of the pollen. The reduction in fruit set was already apparent in the second row away from the pollinizer trees. In a large plantation, without bee hives, relatively low yield was stated on self-sterile trees even close to the pollinizer.
In the case of self-sterile and partially self-fertile varieties, a combination of three varieties is recommended. The blooming period of the pollinizer variety should overlap the period of the self-sterile variety at least by 70 %, and the distance should not exceed 15 to 20 meters. Association of self-fertile varieties may also enhance the productivity of the trees. In that case an overlap of 50 % in blooming time and a maximum distance between the varieties of 30 to 40 meters will be sufficient.
