ECOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF APRICOT ZONING AND MICROZONING IN ROMANIA

To define the ecological conditions suitable for apricot survival and production, the authors used the data characterizing each feature of the natural factors that determine the occurrence of apricot phenophases in its annual cycles of survival and production, as well as the elements influencing the general lifetime and fruit production of apricot.

With the Romanian climatic area, the apricot grows in the warmest and relatively drier part of the territory (Figure 1) and, along with the almond, it tolerates the steppe conditions and those of the sunny slopes in more humide zones, these conditions being unsuitable or harmful to other fruit tree species.

The climatic parameters taken into account to define the suitable area for apricot are shown in Table 1 which presents both the average annual data and those in the critical periods of the season related to the specific phenophases. The data in this table, as compared with other species, show that apricot is the least ubiquitous fruit tree and, therefore, it should be located in zonal climatic conditions, i.e. conditions with a well defined topoclimate or microclimate to ensure its survival and production conditions, the apricot being particularly sensitive from this point of view. However the apricot is more tolerant to climatic stress than other species, especially as concerns the absolute minimum temperatures and those in the blooming and fruiting periods which greatly explains the presence and persistence of apricot in the steppe and sylvosteppe zones of Romania with a more excessive continental climate. In certain years crop losses are due to the discrepency between

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