ISHS Acta Horticulturae 713: VI International Peach Symposium
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PEACH TREE AND FRUIT GROWTH RELATED TO MANAGEMENT PRACTICES |
| Author: | T.M. DeJong |
| Keywords: | peach fruit growth, predicting harvest time, fruit thinning, fruit size |
| Abstract:
Peach researchers have been conducting research related to the physiology and development of peach trees for more than a century and that research has resulted in the development of a large body of knowledge and general understanding of factors that govern peach tree growth and fruit yields. However, horticultural practices for managing fruit trees have often been developed in response to results of empirical studies and it is often difficult to point to cases where physiological and/or developmental principles have guided the development of horticultural practices rather than having empirically derived practices informing the development of physiological principles. In spring, 2004, California experienced record temperatures during bloom time of peach trees in California. Subsequently fruit growers experienced problems with attaining the fruit sizes desired by the market and fruit harvests for specific cultivars were advanced by as much as two weeks compared to “normal” years. This situation provided an excellent test and application of the physiological and developmental concepts governing peach fruit and development that had been previously developed in our laboratory. Specifically these concepts are: for any given time interval, realized fruit growth rate is governed by relative growth rate-determined fruit growth potential and the availability of growth resources; and that fruit development rates are primarily governed by exposure to heat in the first 30 days after bloom. This paper will demonstrate how these concepts can be combined to explain the fruit growth behavior experienced in California in 2004 and make recommendations for dealing with the issue if similar weather conditions occur in the future. | |
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