ISHS Acta Horticulturae 149: Flowering and Fruit Set in Fruit Trees
PREFACE |
| Authors: | . , R. Marcelle |
| Abstract:
Flowering and fruit set are of course the most important determinants of the productivity of fruits trees and they surely deserve the organization of meetings. That has been done in the past and very recently a book was published on the same topic (Acta Horticulture n° 139). Why one meeting more? I see two important justifications for this particular meeting. The first one is almost of the philosophical order and is for me like a pet subject: in many countries of Western Europe (not in all) and particularly in Belgium, there is almost no contact between plant physiologists and agronomists; both find "good" reasons for letting this situation going on. I always found that this was not healthy : both groups of scientists have things to learn from each other. My first aim in organizing this meeting was to put together people working on the same topic, flowering and fruit set, but with different approaches, more fundamental or more applied. The second justification proceeds from the first one : when the two groups of scientists would be together, they must have the opportunity to discuss thoroughly their results. From past experience, I knew that large and deep discussions are only possible if there were not too much participants (30 to 50) and if the material organization of the discussion room was adequate (for instance, possibility for everybody to see easily all the other participants). All that can explain why the symposium was kept small and semi-closed in the sense that almost all participants were specially invited. The quality of a discussion session depends on the performance of the discussion leader; thanks are due to Drs. T. Visser (pollination), G.K Goldwin (growth regulators) and Ir. W. Porreye (quality of flower buds) who took the chair with enthusiasm (I was the leader of the discussion on the flowering process). I express my gratitude to Dr.
A. Soenen, Director of the Research Station of Gorsem, for his encouraging support, including the financial one in organizing this meeting.
Particular thanks are due to Mrs.
C. Missotten and Mr.
W. Brugmans for taking the burden of the registration and administration desk during the whole meeting (Mrs.
C. Missotten also prepared good coffee); the skilful collaboration of Mr.
J. Michiels and G. Jaspers is also acknowledged.
I would like to thank also the 'Instituut tot aanmoediging van het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in Nijverheid en Landbouw' (I.W.O.N.L.) for its moral support. | |
