Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table
.
The effect of cropping levels in
/
on
× in the floral tube of terminal flowers of
'Starking' apple through the southern hemisphere winter
from autumn (April) to full bloom (October)
cell number
Crop in /
Collection dates
Heavy
Light
April
July
August
October
From Bergh (
b). Reproduced with permission.
-
Premature post-harvest defoliation reduces the size of apples of 'Royal Gala'
produced in the following season. This effect is shown even when crop load is
standardized by hand thinning and it cannot be fully explained through effects
on spur leaf area (Tustin et al. ,
). A role of carbohydrate reserves status,
influencing flower and subsequently fruitlet development, seems probable.
' !
Blossom size is positively related to the diameter of the bearing spur and
differences in blossom size are maintained through fruitlet growth to harvest
(Denne,
). Within a spur the 'king' blossom is the largest, with the size
of the others increasing towards the base. Fruit diameter at harvest follows a
similar pattern.
!
The receptacle diameters and lengths of lateral flowers on one-year-old shoots
of 'Royal Gala' and 'Braeburn' apple are less than those of flowers on
) and the fruits are much smaller at ma-
turity. Fruits developed from lateral flowers on one-year-old shoots also give
smaller fruits than those on
-year-old spurs (Volz et al. ,
-year-old spurs of 'Granny Smith' and 'Fuji'
(Volz et al. ,
a). The small size of
lateral flowers on one-year-old wood is related to their late initiation and
differentiation.
) and 'Laxton's Superb' ( Jackson,
-
Low pre-blossom temperatures result in reduced fruit size whether achieved
by conventional temperature modification (Miller,
) or evaporative cool-
ing (Collins, et al. ,
). This may be an effect of later flowering, resulting
 
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