ISHS Acta Horticulturae 592: V International Peach Symposium
NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY AND N PARTITIONING IN EARLY AND LATE FRUIT RIPENING PEACH VARIETIES |
| Authors: | M. Policarpo, L. Di Marco, P. Gioacchini, M. Tagliavini |
| Keywords: | fruit, mineral nutrition, nitrogen uptake, N partitioning, peach |
| Abstract:
Nitrogen (N) use efficiency during the vegetative and reproductive season and its partitioning in peach trees belonging to a very early (cv. ‘Flordastar’) and a very late (cv. ‘Tudia’) ripening cultivars was assessed by applying labelled N fertiliser to potted trees which were destructively harvested at regular intervals. Tree phenology of the two varieties was strongly different: fruit set occurred in mid February for ‘Flordastar’ and in late April for ‘Tudia.’ Leaf senescence in ‘Flordastar’ was almost complete by mid October, while trees of ‘Tudia’ at the December harvest still retained a significant fraction of leaves. At fruit harvest, fruit yield averaged 4.0 and 6.9 kg/tree in cv. ‘Flordastar’ and cv. ‘Tudia,’ respectively, and fruit size was within commercial standards for the two varieties. In both cultivars, N use efficiency was relatively low in the first month after bud burst, and then it increased, levelling off and slightly decreasing only at the end of the season. N uptake did not differ in the two genotypes and accounted on seasonal average for more than 2/3 of the N supplied. The pattern N use efficiency found in this study was similar in the two varieties in spite of the great difference in their fruit ripening period. Data provide scientific evidence for leading N supply in peach orchard under Mediterranean climate. | |
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