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Rootstock effects on fruit drop and quality of 'Arlet' apples
69-75.Views:949The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different growth inducing rootstocks on fruit drop of apple. This research was conducted for 3 years at Nagykutas, Western Hungary on apple cv. 'Arlet'. For the experiments, 3 different growth inducing rootstocks were choosen: M.9 (weak), MM.106 (moderate) and crabapple seedling (strong). There were 3 fruit shedding periods on the trees grafted M.9 and MM.106 rootstocks, but in the case of crabapple seedling, only 2 were found. The measure of fruit drop was closely related to seed count of fruits; seed number was the lowest, fruit drop was the highest. The lowest seed number was counted in fruits from trees on crabapple seedling. Seasonal changes of leaf:fruit ratio mainly depended on shoot growth and fruit drop. The rise of the curve of leaf:fruit ratio was very important during the first phase of fruit development, in especially at the end of June and in the beginning of July. The cause of this is that first and second periods of fruit drop appeared during this term. The rise of the curve was important in the beginning of June and the end of July on crabapple seedling. Decreasing tendency of quality parameters was found of fruits from trees on M.9, MM.106 and seedling rootstocks, except flesh firmness which was the highest in fruits from trees on crabapple seedling.
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The morphology of stigmata in stone fruit species
45-48.Views:705The morphology of the stigma has been studied in 50 varieties belonging to 6 stone fruit species. The majority of samples had elliptical stigmata with some exceptions with circular form (Duane, Tuleu gras). The surface of the stigma is papillary, flattened in side view (sweet cherry) or bulging (apricot, peach). The suture of the stigma is clearly visible as a depression and the varieties may differ in this respect.
The size of the stigma depends highly from the season, although the varietal differences are maintained. The dimension of stigmatic surface is characteristic for the species expressed in square millimetres: sweet cherry 0.92 to 2.91; sour cherry 1.64 to 2.48; plum 0.83 to 1.80; oriental plum 0.53 to 1.15; apricot 0.57 to 1.69 mm2.
The size and morphology of the stigma changes according to varieties too, and it may used in description and identification of varieties. No correlation has been found between the size of stigma and the fertility relations (self-fertility or self-incompatibility) of the respective varieties.
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Comparative economic analysis of superintensive and intensive apple orchards
45-48.Views:383The objective of thsi study was to compare economic aspects of superintensive and intensive apple production.
According to our results, conclusions and recommendations regarding the establishment of superintensive orchards are the followings: A yield of 60 tons per hectare in the average of the mature years provide a quite late payback, in this way yield losses should be avoided in the plantation of such a huge capital requirement. When yield losses happen, which cannot be avoided or may be avoided only in a limited way, up to 65 to 70 tons per hectare yield should be reached even in good years, in order to yield the average 60 tons per hectare in the long run. In this case yield losses from production technological mistakes must not be arisen. Inputs and professional expertise should be used in a maximum way in order to reach yields ensuring profitable production. Investment subsidies may ensure safer return. The return of a superintensive orchard from totally own sources may be risky under the domestic marketing conditions and selling prices, it is strongly uncertain. -
Economic figures of plum production at national level of Hungary
111-113.Views:923In Hungary, natural conditions are optimal for growing plums. In spite of that, plum production was not a successful business in the past years. The reasons of it are, first of all, the utter fluctuation of yields and of the producer’s prices, increment of direct costs of production, dwindling incomes and uncertainties on the market. Serious problems are caused by the high rate of aged plantations, which are not counterbalanced by new plantings. Decisive is the “loose” ranging of the branch by the Union regarding plum production, which is expected for the sake of enlarging production and markets. Our aims are to analyse the management of the eight-year-long period, 2002-2009, and the fate of components of husbandry. The results presented are means of an utterly heterogeneous population of enterprises, being hardly suitable to make actual decisions, but they may enlighten upon challenges and recognise tendencies within the branch.
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Correlation of precipitation distribution and quality sweet cherry production
39-43.Views:696Sweet and sour cherry need 550–600 mm yearly precipitation. The critical period is 1–1.5 month after flowering, it is normally between 15.April – 15. June in Hungary. The rain induced fruit cracking is also a critical and costly problem for cherry growers. Fruits grown under arid conditions are less resistant against rainfall during harvest and up to 50–60% crack damage may occur. A computer program was developed to calculate the precipitation related production risks of sweet cherry. Focus of the research was Zala county. Spatial distribution of precipitation was compared in two directions (East and North of Zala county) based on the data of meteorological stations. The first results indicate that the developed method estimates the risks quite well, compared to the farm experiment results. The developed computer program can be parameterised according to the user’s requirements, this allows to take into account the real variety structure of a given orchard.
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Flower microphenology of Hungarian sour cherry cultivars in Iran climatical conditions
99-101.Views:1091Determination of flower microphenology for selecting the suitable pollinizer for sour cherry cultivars is of significant importance. In order to study the flower microphenology of Hungarian sour cherry (Bőtermő, Érdi jubileum and Cigány) cultivars in Mashhad climatic conditions, an experiment was conducted in I998. 1999, 2005 and 2006, using a completely randomized design with ten replications. The phenological stages were determined from before opening up to browning phase of stigma. Duration of pollen shedding, stigma receptivity and climatic factors were measured. The relative time of flowering between cultivars varied from year to year. The data indicate, the thermal variation strongly contributes to significant differences in duration of stigma viability, although there wasn't a significant difference between cultivars in anther dehiscence period. Phenological stages of flowers are highly affected by meteorological factors in various years.
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Utilisation of data raised in blooming phenology of fruit trees for the choice of pollinisers of plum and apricot varieties
35-41.Views:962Information concerning the blooming time of stone fruit varieties is, first of all, an important condition of finding suitable pollinisers securing adequate fruit set. For that purpose, varieties are assigned to blooming-time-groups. Depending on the number (3 or 5) of the groups, i.e. the length of intervals separating the groups established, pollenisers are to be chosen for self-incompatible and partially self-fertile varieties belonging to the same blooming-time-group. The mutually most overlapping blooming periods of the respective varieties should be found by raising data of their blooming phenology, i.e. dynamics, which is compared by drawing their phenograms and calculating blooming (V) indices. Variety combinations have to be checked, however, concerning mutual fertility relations of the respective pairs of varieties. That is most important in the case of Japanese plums because of the abundant incompatible combinations. Synchronous blooming has been determined by assigning the varieties to blooming-time-groups, or comparing overlaps of blooming phenograms, or by blooming (V) indices. Synchronous blooming phenology has been studied in European plum varieties (111 varietiy combinations) Japanese plums (156 variety combinations) and apricots (153 variety combinations) under Hungarian conditions, over several seasons. In determining overlaps, the less favourable season has been considered as decisive. Polliniser combinations have been chosen with at least 70% synchronous blooming. Blooming time of varieties is an important part of the variety descriptions. Blooming dates may serve also for the estimations of frost risk or security of yield.
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Effect of the placement of self-incompatible apricot varieties on their yield in commercial plantations
82-86.Views:1218Earlier studies concerning self-, free- and cross- fertilization of apricot varieties grown in Hungary, proved the existence of self-sterile as well as self-fertile varieties within the recommended assortment. The self-sterile and partially self-fertile varieties should be planted in association with polliniser varieties, only. The present paper reports about the yields of trees of the widely grown, self-sterile local variety, Ceglédi óriás (Giant of Cegléd), depending on the distance of adequate polliniser trees. In the univarietal, 27 row-wide block of the relevant variety, an efficient polliniser, Magyar kajszi was planted to the 10th and 19th row. In the close vicinity, another block of polliniser, Rózsakajszi C. 320 was located. The number of fruits set per tree has been counted or estimated in two consecutive years. In both seasons, the yield of the Ceglédi óriás trees diminished with the growing distance from the nearest polliniser trees. Those trees in the center of the block, between the two (10th and 19th) rows of Magyar kajszi bore acceptable yield (40 kg/tree in 1987), however, considerable reduction of the number of the fruits set was stated already in the 4-5th row from the polliniser away. Similar gradient of fruit set was apparent in relation to the neighbouring block of Rózsakajszi C 320. The beneficial effect of the vicinity of polliniser varieties was obvious as far as the distance of the 10th row. Taking into consideration the self-sterility, the early blooming time and the poor fertilization of the variety Ceglédi óriás, a planting design of associating it with at least two polliniser varieties (e.g. Gönci magyar kajszi and Ceglédi bíbor) is highly recommended. On the basis also of earlier results, a proposal has been developed for the association of apricot varieties as recommendations for optimising yields. Blooming time, fertilizing potential, schedule of the picking season and market possibilities have to be considered simultaneously.
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Effect of organic and integrated farming on carotenoid and tocopherol content of apricot fruits
15-18.Views:920In modern and healthy diets antioxidants play an important role providing natural defence against serious diseases. Therefore it is recommended to include fruits and vegetables having high antioxidant capacity in daily diet in a due course. Apricot is one of the fruits receiving an increasing attention in this field. This study was conducted to investigate the composition and content of fat-soluble carotenoids and tocopherols in different varieties of apricot using recently developed liquid chromatographic methods. Also it was aimed to compare organic and integrated farming in their effect on carotenoid and tocopherol content of the fruits. The results showed that apricot fruit are rich in vital carotenoids and bioactive tocopherols with significant variation between different varieties. The organic farming had favourable effect on the level of the major carotenoids and depending on variety this technology either increases or does not have significant influence on vitamin E content.
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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:1078During 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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Morphological examination of Hungarian apricot rootstock varieties
59-63.Views:813Apricot seedlings are one of the most widely used rootstocks in apricot growing of Hungary. The National List of Hungary contains 7 apricot seedling rootstocks varieties. The production of apricot graft on seedling rootstock takes 3 years from the seed production to the complete graft and requires more space. It is important to provide the trueness to variety name during this process. In the genus Prunoideae not only the plant but also the stone should have typical characteristics. It seems to be useful to examine the morphology of stone. The observed varieties were 'Tengeribarack C.1300', 'Tengeribarack C.1301', 'Tengeribarack C.1650', 'Tengeribarack' C.1652', 'Tengeribarack C.145', 'Tengeribarack C.1426' and 'Tengeribarack C.2546`.1t seems to be the most suitable characteristic to make a distinction between these varieties by stone, the ratio height of stone to lateral width of stone, the ratio of height of stone to ventral width of stone, the ratio of lateral width of stone to ventral width of stone and the ratio of ventral zone to ventral width. From not measured characteristic seems to be most utilizable to make distinction: the fusion of dorsal groove margins, the shape of apex, the presence of a mucro of the apex, the shape of stalk end in lateral view and the texture of lateral surfaces.
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Nectar production and pollination in peach
123-126.Views:1264Observations were made at two growing sites, Siófok and Szatymaz, in the years 1998 and 1999, on 16 peach varieties. The production of nectar was measured, the foraging behaviour of bees, fruit set and the effect of exclusion of bee visits for different periods were observed systematically.
Production of nectar confirmed earlier data, 9.09 mg per flower in average. There was large variation due to variety and date of observation. Bee visits were relatively abundant. At favourable weather, 1 to 30 visits/flower/day occurred in the average. Artificial hand pollination increased fruit set, substantially. Open pollination yielded superior fruit set than self pollination, without bees. Supplementary bee pollination can be regarded to be beneficial to peach production as well.
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Levels of some micronutrient in dried and fresh fruit samples of apricot cultivars
25-30.Views:1061Concentration of Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn) and Zinc (Zn) was analyzed in fresh and dried fruit samples of “Jumbo cot“, “Tom cot“, “Gold strike“, “Gold bar“, “Bergeron“, “Bergrouge“, “Sweet cot“, “Yellow cot“ and “Zebra“ apricot cultivars. Concentration of the studied elements was strongly affected by cultivars. B, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn content of “Tom cot“ was significantly higher than other cultivars. “Gold strike“ had the highest amount of Mg. Similar tendency was observed in “Zebra“ and “Sweet cot“ where Mn content was significantly higher than the other element contents.
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Preliminary evaluation of breeding perspectives of Ukrainian sweet cherry cultivars: nutraceutical properties and self-incompatibility
7-11.Views:995Some traditional sweet cherry cultivars of Ukrainian origin may represent perspective material for Hungarian cherry breeding. A total of eight cultivars analysed represent great diversity in several phenotypic traits including fruit ripening time or fruit flesh colour. Considerable differences in the anthocyanin content may result in different antioxidant capacity of fruits. In the present study, we used ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and total phenolic content (TPC) assays to characterize fruits’ nutraceutical properties. These values were compared with the respective values measured for eight commercial cultivars grown in Hungary. The average of FRAP and TPC values was higher for the Ukrainian cherries compared with commercial cultivars suggesting they might be included in functional breeding programs. Since, cherry is a self-incompatible species, the determination of S-genotype is required for both breeding and successful cultivar association in commercial orchards. Complete or partial S-genotypes were determined for 5 and 3 cultivars, respectively.
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Effects of irregular cropping on nutrient uptake and status of apple trees
41-44.Views:825Produce of harmonic nutrient balance and status of trees is basic task of growers for qualified fruit growing. The role of crop loaded is essential to grow the productivity of trees without nutrient disorder or other nutritional problems. To reduce the frequency of biennial bearing there are some ways (site and species selection, crop regulation, irrigation, nutrition etc.) from them one is the best easy way the proper site and species oriented nutrition. Sometimes the responsible for irregular cropping is the insufficient fertilization. Observed irregular cropping at two apple cultivars (Malus domestica Borkh., cv. ‘Summerred’ and cv. ‘Mutsu’) in an integrated apple orchard at Hajdúnánás-Tedej, in 2007 resulted a chance to determine nutritional status of “bearing” and “non bearing” trees and investigate the effects of irregular cropping on nutrient uptake and possibilities of correction. Our results pointed out that irregularity is connection on nutrition status of trees. Irregular cropping results in insufficient nutrient uptake and disharmony of nutrients. For this reason, the establishment of nutrient status of “non bearing” trees is could permit a chance to correct and improve the nutrient supply of trees which help to breakdown the vicious circle of irregularity.
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Effect of frost damage on leaf macronutrient status of eight apple cultivars in integrated apple orchard in Eastern-Hungary
37-40.Views:5378The year of 2007 was critical for fruit growers in the region of Easter-Hungary. Several orchards were suffered frost damages. Significant frost damage was also happened in the orchard of Tedej Rt., which caused total fruit failure in the orchard. Our study was conducted in the integrated apple orchard (Malus domestics Borkh.) established on a lowland chemozem soil in East-Hungary, to investigate how frost changes the mineral content of different apple species. Leaf samples were collected 100 days after full bloom both in 2006 and 2007. The concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium and magnesium were measured in leaves. The absence of fruits caused a smaller accumulation of nitrogen and magnesium in leaves. Falling down of flowers and fruit sets hindered the translocation of the uptaken phosphorous, potassium and calcium towards fruit sets. Due to fruit failure the vegetative processes became dominant. Leaves larger amount of phosphorous, potassium and calcium stored. Besides the absolute element content, the ratio of the different elements was also determined. Majority of calculated ratios were removed from optimal values due to frost. Both absolute content of nutrients and their ratios pointed out that the frost damage significantly affected the uptake of nutrients and their storing processes.
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Evaluation of the quality of Sorbus fruits belonging to different species
37-41.Views:267The interest in wild growing fruits was increased considerably by the pharmaceutical industry, the cosmetics as well as by the food industry. (Stefanovits-Bányai et al., 2004). Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L), sand thorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), cornet (Cornus mas L.), dog rose (Rosa canina L. bearing hips) and the Sorbus species (Sorhus ssp.) have been well known medicinal and/or ornamental plants since long. Recently, precious substances have been detected in their fruits, which are indispensable in healthy foods. Several species and micro-species of the genus Sorbus are components of the native flora of Hungary, and the fruit of some of them have been consumed traditionally, however, they are preferably considered as ornamentals. The nursery of Alsótekeres (Balatonvilágos) maintained some 16 clones of Sorbus species, which are mainly apomictic "micro species" of. the collection. In 2003, a comprehensive analysis of sorb fruits born on apomictic micro species was initiated in order to find those, which will be suitable to establish plantations. It turned out that considerable differences exist between the fruits of individual taxa, however, it is largely influenced by seasonal effects. According to physical measurements, a scale of mean fruit masses could be established. As for chemical ingredients of the fruits, those are of special interest, which are involved mainly in anti-oxidant activities of the organisms (calcium, potash, phosphorus, copper, magnesium).
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Floral attractivity of pear cultivar 'Cinderi'
102-109.Views:410The regularities of primary attractivity have been studied at the pear cultivar `Cinderi' for two years. Nectar quickly evaporates from the totally open nectary surface of pear flowers exposed to environmental effects, and the rhythmicity of nectar secretion can be determined with difficulty. Flowers do not function according to a unified endogenous rhythm, the whole tree becomes continuously attractive for insects, since it attracts insects on more occasions during the day with some of its flowers. During the warm afternoon hours there is usually no measurable nectar production. Pollen shedding is most intensive in the afternoon hours. Pear flowers produce little and diluted nectar, which often does not come up to apicultural expectations. The age of the flower does not significantly affect the quantity and refraction of nectar. The flowers of pear cv. ‘Cinderi' are delayed homogamous.
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Incidence of postharvest decays on cultivars of pear, apricot, sour cherry and peach under two storage conditions
63-65.Views:18264In this two-year study, postharvest decays of pear, apricot, sour cherry and peach cultivars under two storage methods (TC and CA) were determined after four monthes storage periods; and then causal agents of postharvest decays of two pear cultvars were idenfified under traditional cold storage conditions. Results showed that postharvest decay was lower under controlled atmosphere compared to traditional cold one. Decay was lower on pear and the largest deacy occured on peach and apricot cultivars. Cultivars of fruit species also showed differences in incidence of fruit decays. Incidence of decays was independent on year effect. Under controlled atmosphere, postharvest decay ranged between 0 an 8% for pear, and between 5 and 12% for apricot, and between 6 and 11% for sour cherry, and between 5 and 15% for peach. Under traditional cold storage, postharvest decay ranged between 16 an 21% for pear, and between 15 and 39% for apricot, and between 10 and 22% for sour cherry, and between 19 and 33% for peach. Incidence of pear fruit damage ranged between 7.5 and 12.3%. Most damage started from injured fruit or wounded fruit. Five types of damage occurred ont he pear fruits in both years: Penicillium spp., Monilinia spp., Chondrostereum spp., other pathogens and mechanical injury. The most common damage was caused by Penicillium spp., Monilina spp. and Chondrostereum spp. On both pear cultivars in both years.
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Preliminary observations on winter-hardy Agave spp. in Hungarian rock garden
55-59.Views:363In the recent three decades several winter-hardy succulent collections were established in Hungary. These collections belong to winter-hardy cacti and their companion plants the agaves too. The agaves are much more rare than cacti and only few species can tolerate Hungarian climate conditions without any guard. When selecting the species, winter-hardiness has to be considered which includes all factors in the winter period. Observations were performed for frost resistant or winter-hardy Agave species in private collections. The recent paper gives information on 7 species of Agave and try to help the determination of the plants outside in the ground.
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Blooming time of some apricot varieties of different origin in Hungary
16-20.Views:988There are a number of self-incompatible and partially self-compatible apricot varieties which need cross pollination for suitable yield. We have to know their blooming time to select the appropriate pollen donor cultivars. The blooming period of 20 apricot varieties was observed in four subsequent years. Blooming time was affected by temperature conditions very much. Varieties studied were assigned to three groups according to their blooming time. The rate of overlapping of important variety combinations was observed. Sufficient overlapping of blooming period for safe pollination is usually ensured within the same group of varieties or between varieties of the neighbouring blooming time groups.
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Organic and mineral fertilizer effects on the yield and mineral contents of carrot (Daucus carota)
69-74.Views:721A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of ammonium-nitrate, food waste compost, bacterial fertilizer (EM-1) and their combinations on production and nutrient contents of carrot. The study was conducted on a calcareous chernozem and acidic sandy soils in a randomized complete block design with 8 treatments and four replications. NH4NO3 in chernozem soil increased the weight of carrot leaves only, while in sandy soil resulted in reduced yield and highly increased NO3-N content of roots. Sandy soil showed higher response of biomass production to food waste compost application than chernozem soil. The highest carotenoid content of roots was measured with compost treatment. Combined application of compost and NH4NO3 in chernozem proved to be good combination but in sandy soil have turn out to be less favourable than sole compost treatment. Bacterial fertilizer (EM-1) did not cause marked effect on the yield parameters, but caused increased phosphorus content of plant. In chernozem soil the maximum yield parameters were achieved with the combined treatment of ammonium-nitrate+compost+EM-1. In sandy soil the most favourable treatment proved to be the compost treatment. Results suggest that application of food waste compost as a nutrient source could be a promising agrochemical practice especially in soils having low organic material and low nutrient supply.
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Importance of boron in fruit nutrition
39-44.Views:1702Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient in plants especially in fruits. Despite of this fact there are very few information about its application, uptake and symptoms in Hungarian fruit growing sector. Nowadays we should consider the effects of weather conditions on soil B availability increasingly according to the climatic anomalies. Identifying of internal and external symptoms of plant parts (leaf, fruit) is help for growers to recognize the deficiency and excess symptoms in time. Methods and application rates of boron fertilization provide further information for growers to achieve qualify-oriented fruit growing among Hungarian conditions. The aim of this minireview is to focus on the importance of boron in fruit nutrition.
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Test of the utility of apple retrotransposon insertion patterns for molecular identification of 'Jonathan' somatic mutants
7-10.Views:575Up until today, apple sport mutants proved to be indistinguishable from each other and their progenitors at the molecular level using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker techniques. This is not surprising, since the genomes of these somatic mutants differ only in one or a few small regions that affect economically important characteristics, such as improved fruit colour, size, or flavour. In most cases, these genome differences are probably caused by retrotransposons which are able to convert their RNA transcripts to DNA with reverse transcriptase enzyme prior to reinsertion, but unable to leave the genome and infect other cells. Retrotransposon insertions can alter the expression of other genes and/or the structure of encoded proteins. The sequence-specific amplified polymorphism (S-SAP) technique is capable of revealing the genetic distribution of retrotransposable elements over the whole genome. The present study used this approach to try to characterize and distinguish 'Jonathan' somatic mutants via fingerprinting, which is an unsolved problem.
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Fruit drop: I. Specific characteristics and varietal properties of fruit drop
59-67.Views:15239The basic conditions of fruit set (synchronic bloom, transfer of pollen, etc.) still do decide definitely the fate of the flower in spite of the best weather conditions. Beyond a set quantity of fruits, the tree is unable to bring up larger load. A system of autoregulation works in the background and causes the drop of a fraction of fruits in spite of the accomplished fertilisation and the equality of physiological precedents. This study discuss this physiological process based on the international specific literature. The further development of fruits maintained on the tree depends mainly on the growing conditions (e.g. water, supply of nutrients, weather adversities, pruning, fruit thinning, biotic damages, etc.), which may cause on their own turn fruit drop especially at the time of approaching maturity.
