ISHS Acta Horticulturae 726: IV International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds
DISTRIBUTION OF FLOWER CLUSTER OPENING |
| Author: | J. Zhang |
| Keywords: | Pistacia vera, distribution, bloom period, biennial bearing, quality |
| Abstract:
Pistachio trees are a biennial-bearing crop. Reducing carbohydrate cost in the “on”-year is important for overcoming biennial bearing. Before investigating ways to remove flower clusters in the “on”-year, the distribution of flower cluster opening was studied. Two 18-year-old “Sirora” pistachio female trees were selected and every flower cluster was tagged at full bloom with distinct markers for different dates. Numbers of open flower clusters were recorded and distributions of flower cluster opening were determined. This study has shown that although 2 trees have different numbers of flower buds, good flower buds emerged in the same period. Extra flower buds usually appeared at the later stages. This may be termed as homogeneous yield effect. Investigation also showed a tendency that late flower clusters usually have lower nut setting and produce small nuts with high percentages of blank nuts and non-split nuts. | |
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