Research Article Yield and Fruit Characteristics of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ija/2013/687345.pdf · InternationalJournalofAgronomy 3,0 8,0 13,0 18,0 23,0 28,0 33,0 38,0 Jan

Hindawi Publishing CorporationInternational Journal of AgronomyVolume 2013 Article ID 687345 5 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552013687345

Research ArticleYield and Fruit Characteristics of Various ApricotCultivars under Subtropical Climate Conditions of theMediterranean Region in Turkey

A Aytekin Polat and Oguzhan Caliskan

Department of Horticulture Faculty of Agriculture Mustafa Kemal University Antakya 31034 Hatay Turkey

Correspondence should be addressed to A Aytekin Polat apolatmkuedutr

Received 19 March 2013 Revised 29 June 2013 Accepted 30 June 2013

Academic Editor Robert J Kremer

Copyright copy 2013 A A Polat and O Caliskan This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properlycited

Seven apricot cultivars (ldquoBelianardquo ldquoCaninordquo ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo ldquoFerianardquo ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo ldquoTokaloglurdquo and ldquoMacarrdquo)were evaluated at the experimental orchard of the Department of Horticulture Faculty of Agriculture Mustafa Kemal UniversityHatay Turkey Phenological and pomological characteristics such as flowering period average fruit weight yield fruit dimensionsfleshseed ratio acidity and total soluble solids (TSSs) were examined In addition yield parameters of the cultivars were evaluatedOver four years the highest average fruit weight was obtained from ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo (379 g) while ldquoFerianardquo had the lowest(309 g) The fleshseed ratio was the highest in the ldquoCaninordquo (168) ldquoCaninordquo had the highest TSS content with 145 whereasldquoBelianardquo had the lowest TSS value with 106 ldquoBelianardquo and ldquoFerianardquo ripened the earliest (May 20) while ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquoripened latest (June 7) The average yield was highest on ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo (412 kgtree) ldquoBelianardquo and ldquoFerianardquo cultivars arerecommended for precocity and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo and ldquoTokaloglurdquo for middle season in Dortyol Turkey

1 Introduction

More than 80 of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L) productioncomes from the Mediterranean area and is concentrated in aperiod of 30ndash40 days mostly in June [1] Turkey is the worldrsquoslargest producing country of both fresh and dried apricotApricots are grown in almost all parts of Turkey except inthe very humid regions around the Black Sea and in the highplateaus of the East Anatolian Region [2] Most production isdrying cultivars whereas fresh apricot cultivars are producedprimarily in coastal regions especially theMediterranean andAegean Sea regions of Turkey [3] In Turkey apricot is grownin a wide range of climatic conditionsWeathers are very coldduring winter and very arid during summer in main apri-cot growing areas Malatya Erzincan and Igdır provincesApricots grown in these provinces damaged frequently by latespring frost However the climate of Mediterranean regionwhich have semiarid having hot summers and mild-winterscan be occurred rarely frost damage [4] Hatay which islocated in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey has the

most suitable ecological conditions for growing table apricotApricot planting in Hatay area has increased rapidly due tothe comparative advantage of earliness of harvest

In Turkey strong market demand along with the intro-duction of foreign cultivars opens up promising possibilitiesto extend the cropping season to May and June Breedingprograms for the improvement of local cultivars togetherwith the introduction of high-quality cultivars from GreeceFrance Italy Spain and USA are currently introduced toMediterranean region of Turkey and are under evaluationFruits in Turkey are harvested 15ndash30 days earlier as comparedto the country of origin [3 5] Bassi and Audergon [6]reported that some cultivars from Italy seem to perform wellin terms of size and appearance or taste although they oftenshow reduced yields owing to their poor adaptability to theclimate and soils of the region Therefore new cultivars needto be evaluated and selected that can perform well on acommercial scale under local environmental conditions

The problem of environmental is inadaptability of newvarieties to different conditions from those of their origin

2 International Journal of Agronomy

Fruiting regularity is a serious problem in several apricotcultivars The cultivars flower irregularly and sufficientlyin environments other than those of origin The climatic-environmental factors may heavily influence the breakingof flower bud dormancy also affecting the entity of theappearance of floral anomalies Also apricot culture is greatlyrestricted by climatic conditions especially those related tochill accumulation in several growing areas with a significantinfluence on productivity [7 8]

The aim of this study was to evaluate blossoming timesfruit quality traits and yield parameters of some foreign anddomestic apricot cultivars for their suitability for cultivationin Dortyol (Hatay) Turkey conditions

2 Materials and Methods

The study was conducted at the Mustafa Kemal Universitythe Faculty of Agriculture Dortyol Research Station inHatayTurkey Dortyol Research Station is located at 36∘ 131015840 E 36∘541015840 N 198m asl Dortyol has a typical Mediterranean cli-mate the yearly average temperature is 193∘C with 925mmprecipitation which primarily falls during winter and springDortyol has 521 winter chilling hours (below 7∘C) The datawere obtained from 33 years of meteorological observationsThe temperature precipitation and humidity values duringof the study are also shown in Figure 1

This study was designed using six foreign (ldquoBelianardquoldquoCaninordquo ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo ldquoFerianardquo ldquoRouge de Sern-hacrdquo and ldquoMacarrdquo) and one native (ldquoTokaloglurdquo) cultivarswhich are used for fresh market consumption Seven apricotcultivars were grafted onto seedling rootstocks and plantedwith 6 times 6m in 1997 and trained in an open-vase systemTheorchard soil is clay textured and the experimental field wasirrigated by drip irrigation

21 Phenological Observations Different phenological prop-erties (first blossoming full blossoming end of floweringand ripening period) were evaluated First and full bloomswere based on 5 and 70 open flowers respectively Theend of flowering was based on 90 petals dropThe ripeningperiod was the period between the first and the final harvestdates

22 Pomological Characteristics Fruits were harvested atmaturity based on appearance and taste and 30 fruits wererandomly sampled from each tree Pomological characteris-tics (fruit weight fruit dimension fleshseed ratio solublesolid and acidity contents in fruit juice) were evaluatedEach fruit was weighed The width and length values of eachfruit were measured by a digital compass The fleshseedratio was estimated as follows ((mean fruit weight minus meanseed weight)mean seed weight) Total soluble solids (TSSs)were determined using a hand refractometer and aciditywas measured using a digital burette pH values of the fruitsamples were obtained by a digital pH meter

23 Vegetative Growth and Yield Parameters The vegetativegrowth of the cultivars was evaluated by measuring the

annual increase of trunk diameters and lengths of annualshoots on vegetative branch Productive parameters of theseven cultivars such as cumulative production per plant(kg) and cumulative production per hectare (tons) werecalculated

24 Data Analysis and Statistics A randomized experimentwas designed with five trees from each cultivar and each treewas treated as one replicateVariance analyses of the datawereconducted and the mean comparisons were made by Tukeyrsquoshonestly significant differences (HSD) test where 119875 value lessthan 05 was considered to be significant [9]

3 Results and Discussion

31 Phenological Observations The flowering stages of theapricot cultivars are shown in Figure 2 ldquoBelianardquo was theearliest cultivar to bloom and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo andldquoMacarrdquo were the latest Full bloom periods of the cultivarsranged between March 11 and March 23

Early production is of the very important for growingfresh apricot in the Mediterranean region of Turkey Theearliest maturing cultivars were ldquoBelianardquo and ldquoFerianardquo (May20) whereas the latest ripening cultivars were ldquoPrecoce deColomerrdquo and ldquoMacarrdquo (June 7) (Figure 3) In the previousstudies the ripening data for apricot cultivars were in therange of May 14ndashJune 26 in Spain [10] June 11ndashSeptember 10in Hungary [11] and May 26ndashJune 25 in Italy [1] The easternMediterranean region is the earliest apricot producing area inTurkey This result could be due to climatic conditions in theregion where the climate is semiarid having hot summersand mild winters This area had high day-night temperaturechanges from February to May (gt20∘C) and maximum tem-peratures were gt30∘C in April and May (Figure 1) Thereforethe apricot cultivars could be early fulfilling degree-daythresholds from full bloom to ripening inDortyol conditionsRuml et al [12] indicated that the effect of growing degree-day thresholds on harvest time of apricots is very importantfor each apricot-producing region

32 Pomological Characteristics The differences among thefruit quality characteristics of the cultivars tested were sta-tistically significant at 005 levels The fruit size is one ofthe most important fruit quality traits for fresh apricotsOver four years ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo had the highest averagefruit weight fruit width and fruit length (379 g 395mmand 416mm resp) whereas ldquoTokaloglurdquo had the lowest(308 g 347mm and 363mm resp) (Table 1) Our dataconcerning fruit weight was higher than those found by Polatet al [3] and Polat and Yilmaz [13] in ldquoCaninordquo ldquoFerianardquoand ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo The fruit height of ldquoPrecoce deColomerrdquo and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo cultivars was highest (394and 385mm resp) The previous studies on apricot alsoindicated a high variability among apricot cultivars regardingfruit size characteristics [10]

ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo had the highest seed weight (28 g)whereas ldquoCaninordquo had the lowest (19 g) The fleshseed ratioof the cultivars was highest for ldquoCaninordquo (167) and lowest for

International Journal of Agronomy 3

3080

130180230280330380

Jan

Feb

Mar

ch

April

May

June July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

Tem

pera

ture

(∘C)

minus20

(a)

Jan

Feb

Mar

chAp

rilM

ayJu

ne July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Hum

idity

()

Rain

fall

(mm

)

(b)

Figure 1 Meteorological data for Dortyol Hatay in the eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey (a) Minimum (Δ) maximum (O) andaverage temperatures (◻) and (b) rainfall level (grey columns) and mean humidity (O) in growing years

Table 1 Some fruit quality characteristics of the apricot cultivars (average of four years)

Cultivar Fruit Seed weight (g) Fleshseed ratio TSS () PH Acidity ()Weight(g)

Width(mm)

Length(mm)

Height(mm)

Beliana 331 ab 360 cd 382 b 350 c 24 ab 107 d 106 e 329 a 172 bCanino 347 ab 373 abc 388 ab 375 abc 19 c 167 a 145 a 314 ab 206 abFeriana 304 b 365 bcd 378 b 368 abc 24 ab 114 cd 114 cde 316 ab 188 abMacar 337 ab 386 ab 384 ab 381 ab 24 ab 122 c 125 b 295 c 204 abPrecoce de Colomer 336 ab 356 cd 388 ab 394 a 28 a 110 cd 118 bcd 294 c 219 aRouge de Sernhac 379 a 395 a 416 a 385 a 25 ab 135 b 121 bc 300 bc 199 abTokaloglu 308 b 347 d 363 b 354 bc 22 bc 114 cd 110 de 307 bc 190 abMean + SE 335 plusmn 25 369 plusmn 17 388 plusmn 23 373 plusmn 16 25 plusmn 03 125 plusmn 21 120 plusmn 13 31 plusmn 01 20 plusmn 02HSD (5) 65 25 34 29 03 12 10 015 045

Flowering dates2-Mar 7-Mar 12-Mar 17-Mar 22-Mar 27-Mar 1-Apr

Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Culti

vars

First blossomingFull bloomEnd of flowering

Tokaloglu

Figure 2 Flowering dates of the apricot cultivars (average of fouryears)

ldquoBelianardquo (107) In other studies the fleshseed ratios of thecultivars varied between 89 and 218 and the fleshseed ratioin ldquoCaninordquo was generally higher than other cultivars [3 13]

Ripening dates17-May 22-May 27-May 1-Jun 6-Jun 11-Jun 16-Jun

Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Tokaloglu

Culti

vars

Figure 3 Maturation dates of the apricot cultivars (average of fouryears)

The TSS content is an important quality parameterinfluencing notably the fruit taste TSS content of the apri-cot cultivars changed between 106 (ldquoBelianardquo) and 145(ldquoCaninordquo) Our data concerning TSS content of the samecultivars were lower than the results obtained by Polat andYilmaz [13] and higher than those of Polat et al [3]


Table 2 Tree trunk diameter annual shoot length and yield parameters of the apricot cultivars (average of four years)

Cultivar Tree trunkdiameter (mm)

Annual shootlength (cm)

Yield Yieldtrunk sectionarea (kgcm2)

Cumulative yield(kgtree) (tha) (kgtree) (tha)

Beliana 805 ab 666 a 331 a 92 b 094 a 1014 b 256 bCanino 558 c 512 ab 168 b 38 c 079 a 506 d 105 dFeriana 900 a 532 ab 198 b 78 b 034 bc 610 c 173 cMacar 901 a 418 b 31 c 01 d 006 c 108 f 27 ePrecoce de Colomer 689 bc 658 a 126 bc 41 c 036 bc 350 e 134 cdRouge de Sernhac 957 a 501 ab 412 a 141 a 061 ab 1250 a 336 aTokaloglu 868 ab 475 ab 409 a 132 a 065 ab 1216 a 320 aMean + SE 811 plusmn 141 542 plusmn 100 239 plusmn 147 65 plusmn 41 05 plusmn 03 722 plusmn 444 193 plusmn 115HSD (5) 194 226 121 35 035 68 63

The highest TSS values were observed in late-ripeningapricots particularly ldquoCaninordquo ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo andldquoMacarrdquo Kader [14] considered the mean values of TSS over10 as the minimum value for consumer acceptance forapricots which is the case in our cultivars The highest pHwas determined in ldquoBelianardquo (329) whereas the lowest aciditywas ldquoBelianardquo (172) ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo had the highestacidity (219) These acidity values were in agreement withprevious studies on apricot [11]

33 Vegetative Growth and Yield Parameters Values of treetrunk diameter annual shoot length and yield characteristicsfor the apricot cultivars are shown in Table 2 On theaverage of four years ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo ldquoMacarrdquo andldquoFerianardquo had the highest trunk diameter values (957 901and 900mm resp) ldquoBelianardquo (666 cm) and ldquoPrecoce deColomerrdquo (658 cm) had the highest annual shoot growthvalues while ldquoMacarrdquo had the lowest (418 cm)

For yield per tree ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo ldquoTokaloglurdquo andldquoBelianardquo gave the best results (412 409 and 331 kgtreeresp) The lowest yield per tree was found in ldquoMacarrdquo(313 kgtree) The yield values in the study were higherthan those of Paydas et al [15] and Son and Kuden [16]but lower than the result of Ayanoglu et al [17] ldquoBelianardquo(094 kgcm2) and ldquoCaninordquo (079 kgcm2) had the highestyield per unit trunk cross-sectional whereas ldquoMacarrdquo had thelowest (006 kgcm2)

ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo and ldquoTokaloglurdquo had the highest yieldper unit area with 141 tonshectare and 132 tonshectarerespectively whereas ldquoMacarrdquo had the lowest yield with 01tonshectare (Table 2)The highest cumulative yield values inboth yield per tree and yield per hectare were obtained fromldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo (1250 kgtree and 336 tha resp) andldquoTokaloglurdquo (1216 kgtree and 320 tha resp) The lowestcumulative yield values were found in ldquoMacarrdquo (108 kgtreeand 27 tonha) ldquoMacarrdquo cultivar had the lowest yield param-eters in Dortyol ecological conditions This can be becausethe cultivar has higher chilling requirement at the rest periodActually the cultivar which had irregular flowering periodwas lower in shoot length and yield In addition Kudenand Son [18] indicated that ldquoBelianardquo (350 chilling hours)ldquoFerianardquo (350 chilling hours) ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo(500

chilling hours) and ldquoCaninordquo (550 chilling hours) cultivars tothe chilling requirement grown in the eastern Mediterraneanregion were sufficient

Fruiting regularity is the most important parameter forapricot cultivation Apricot cultivation is greatly restrictedby climatic conditions especially those related to chillaccumulation in several growing areas with a significantinfluence on productivity Our results showed that foreignapricots cultivars especially ldquoBelianardquo ldquoFerianardquo and ldquoRougede Sernhacrdquo were very well adapted to easternMediterraneanecological conditions In addition the Mediterranean regionfor ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo was very suitable compared totemperature zone conditions of Turkey [19] In additionldquoTokaloglurdquo which is native Turkish cultivar showed a perfectperformance depending on fruit quality and yield parameterscompared to foreign cultivars Apricot cultivars which havelower chill accumulation values can be grown undamaged bylate spring frosts in the eastern Mediterranean region

We can conclude that ldquoBelianardquo and ldquoFerianardquo cultivarsfor precocity and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo and ldquoTokaloglurdquocultivars for mid-season production with high yields arerecommended for planting inDortyol Turkey Early cultivarsin a region which are known for early production should bean important marketing benefit for Turkey

References

[1] R L Bianco V Farina S G Indelicato F Filizzola and PAgozzino ldquoFruit physical chemical and aromatic attributes ofearly intermediate and late apricot cultivarsrdquo Journal of theScience of Food and Agriculture vol 90 no 6 pp 1008ndash10192010

[2] A A Polat and O Caliskan ldquoDetermination of growth andfruit quality parameters of some apricot cultivars in subtropicalclimate conditions of Turkish Mediterranean regionrdquo ActaHorticulturae vol 862 pp 323ndash330 2010

[3] A A Polat C Durgac O Kamiloglu and O Caliskan ldquoInves-tigation on the adaptation of some low-chill apricot cultivars toKirikhan (Turkey) ecological conditionsrdquo Acta Hortuculturaevol 636 pp 395ndash400 2004

[4] S Ercisli ldquoApricot culture in Turkeyrdquo Scientific Research andEssays vol 4 no 8 pp 715ndash719 2009


[5] S Paydas N Kaska H Gubbuk and A A Polat ldquoInvesti-gations on the adaptations of some new apricot cultivars toAdana (Turkey) ecological conditionsrdquo Journal of Agriculture ofCukurova University vol 5 no 4 pp 41ndash48 1990

[6] D Bassi and J M Audergon ldquoApricot breeding update andperspectivesrdquo Acta Horticulturae vol 701 pp 279ndash294 2006

[7] N Alburquerque L Burgos M Sedgley and J Egea ldquoCon-tributing to the knowledge of the fertilisation process in fourapricot cultivarsrdquo Scientia Horticulturae vol 102 no 4 pp 387ndash396 2004

[8] C A Ledbetter ldquoApricotsrdquo in Temperature Fruit Crop BreedingJ F Hancock Ed chapter 2 pp 39ndash82 2008

[9] SAS Institute SAS Online Doc Version 913 SAS Inst CaryNC USA 2005

[10] D Ruiz and J Egea ldquoPhenotypic diversity and relationships offruit quality traits in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L) germplasmrdquoEuphytica vol 163 no 1 pp 143ndash158 2008

[11] A Hegeds R Engel L Abranko et al ldquoAntioxidant andantiradical capacities in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L) fruitsvariations from genotypes years and analytical methodsrdquoJournal of Food Science vol 75 no 9 pp C722ndashC730 2010

[12] M Ruml A Vukovic and DMilatovic ldquoEvaluation of differentmethods for determining growing degree-day thresholds inapricot cultivarsrdquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol54 no 4 pp 411ndash422 2010

[13] A A Polat and M Yilmaz ldquoInvestigations on the adaptationsof some native and foreign apricot cultivars to Adana ecologicalconditionsrdquo Journal of Science and Engineering vol 2 no 1 pp127ndash146 1988

[14] A A Kader ldquoFruit maturity ripening and quality relation-shipsrdquo Acta Horticulturae vol 484 no 203 208 pages 1999

[15] S Paydas N Kaska A A Polat and H Gubbuk ldquoInvesti-gations on the adaptations of some new apricot cultivars toAdana (Turkey) ecological conditions (in Turkish) (1991-1992experimental years)rdquo in Proceedings of the Turkish 1st NationalHorticulture Congress pp 465ndash469 1992

[16] L Son and A Kuden ldquoEffects of seedling and GF-31 rootstockson yield and fruit quality of some table apricot cultivars grownin Mersinrdquo Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry vol 27no 5 pp 261ndash267 2003

[17] H Ayanoglu N Kaska and A Yildiz ldquoInvestigations onthe adaptations of early apricot cultivars in Mediterraneanregionrdquo in Proceedings of the Turkish 2nd National HorticulturalCongress vol 1 pp 159ndash163 1995

[18] A B Kuden and L Son ldquoResearches on peach and nectarineswith lower chill requirementsrdquo Cukurova University Journal ofAgricultural Faculty vol 11 pp 129ndash138 1995

[19] T Yarılgac and A Kazankaya ldquoAdaptation of some apricotcultivars in Van ecological conditionsrdquo Kahramanmaras SutcuImam University Journal of Science and Engineering vol 5 pp131ndash139

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Fruiting regularity is a serious problem in several apricotcultivars The cultivars flower irregularly and sufficientlyin environments other than those of origin The climatic-environmental factors may heavily influence the breakingof flower bud dormancy also affecting the entity of theappearance of floral anomalies Also apricot culture is greatlyrestricted by climatic conditions especially those related tochill accumulation in several growing areas with a significantinfluence on productivity [7 8]

The aim of this study was to evaluate blossoming timesfruit quality traits and yield parameters of some foreign anddomestic apricot cultivars for their suitability for cultivationin Dortyol (Hatay) Turkey conditions

2 Materials and Methods

The study was conducted at the Mustafa Kemal Universitythe Faculty of Agriculture Dortyol Research Station inHatayTurkey Dortyol Research Station is located at 36∘ 131015840 E 36∘541015840 N 198m asl Dortyol has a typical Mediterranean cli-mate the yearly average temperature is 193∘C with 925mmprecipitation which primarily falls during winter and springDortyol has 521 winter chilling hours (below 7∘C) The datawere obtained from 33 years of meteorological observationsThe temperature precipitation and humidity values duringof the study are also shown in Figure 1

This study was designed using six foreign (ldquoBelianardquoldquoCaninordquo ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo ldquoFerianardquo ldquoRouge de Sern-hacrdquo and ldquoMacarrdquo) and one native (ldquoTokaloglurdquo) cultivarswhich are used for fresh market consumption Seven apricotcultivars were grafted onto seedling rootstocks and plantedwith 6 times 6m in 1997 and trained in an open-vase systemTheorchard soil is clay textured and the experimental field wasirrigated by drip irrigation

21 Phenological Observations Different phenological prop-erties (first blossoming full blossoming end of floweringand ripening period) were evaluated First and full bloomswere based on 5 and 70 open flowers respectively Theend of flowering was based on 90 petals dropThe ripeningperiod was the period between the first and the final harvestdates

22 Pomological Characteristics Fruits were harvested atmaturity based on appearance and taste and 30 fruits wererandomly sampled from each tree Pomological characteris-tics (fruit weight fruit dimension fleshseed ratio solublesolid and acidity contents in fruit juice) were evaluatedEach fruit was weighed The width and length values of eachfruit were measured by a digital compass The fleshseedratio was estimated as follows ((mean fruit weight minus meanseed weight)mean seed weight) Total soluble solids (TSSs)were determined using a hand refractometer and aciditywas measured using a digital burette pH values of the fruitsamples were obtained by a digital pH meter

23 Vegetative Growth and Yield Parameters The vegetativegrowth of the cultivars was evaluated by measuring the

annual increase of trunk diameters and lengths of annualshoots on vegetative branch Productive parameters of theseven cultivars such as cumulative production per plant(kg) and cumulative production per hectare (tons) werecalculated

24 Data Analysis and Statistics A randomized experimentwas designed with five trees from each cultivar and each treewas treated as one replicateVariance analyses of the datawereconducted and the mean comparisons were made by Tukeyrsquoshonestly significant differences (HSD) test where 119875 value lessthan 05 was considered to be significant [9]

3 Results and Discussion

31 Phenological Observations The flowering stages of theapricot cultivars are shown in Figure 2 ldquoBelianardquo was theearliest cultivar to bloom and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo andldquoMacarrdquo were the latest Full bloom periods of the cultivarsranged between March 11 and March 23

Early production is of the very important for growingfresh apricot in the Mediterranean region of Turkey Theearliest maturing cultivars were ldquoBelianardquo and ldquoFerianardquo (May20) whereas the latest ripening cultivars were ldquoPrecoce deColomerrdquo and ldquoMacarrdquo (June 7) (Figure 3) In the previousstudies the ripening data for apricot cultivars were in therange of May 14ndashJune 26 in Spain [10] June 11ndashSeptember 10in Hungary [11] and May 26ndashJune 25 in Italy [1] The easternMediterranean region is the earliest apricot producing area inTurkey This result could be due to climatic conditions in theregion where the climate is semiarid having hot summersand mild winters This area had high day-night temperaturechanges from February to May (gt20∘C) and maximum tem-peratures were gt30∘C in April and May (Figure 1) Thereforethe apricot cultivars could be early fulfilling degree-daythresholds from full bloom to ripening inDortyol conditionsRuml et al [12] indicated that the effect of growing degree-day thresholds on harvest time of apricots is very importantfor each apricot-producing region

32 Pomological Characteristics The differences among thefruit quality characteristics of the cultivars tested were sta-tistically significant at 005 levels The fruit size is one ofthe most important fruit quality traits for fresh apricotsOver four years ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo had the highest averagefruit weight fruit width and fruit length (379 g 395mmand 416mm resp) whereas ldquoTokaloglurdquo had the lowest(308 g 347mm and 363mm resp) (Table 1) Our dataconcerning fruit weight was higher than those found by Polatet al [3] and Polat and Yilmaz [13] in ldquoCaninordquo ldquoFerianardquoand ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo The fruit height of ldquoPrecoce deColomerrdquo and ldquoRouge de Sernhacrdquo cultivars was highest (394and 385mm resp) The previous studies on apricot alsoindicated a high variability among apricot cultivars regardingfruit size characteristics [10]

ldquoPrecoce de Colomerrdquo had the highest seed weight (28 g)whereas ldquoCaninordquo had the lowest (19 g) The fleshseed ratioof the cultivars was highest for ldquoCaninordquo (167) and lowest for


3080

130180230280330380

Jan

Feb

Mar

ch

April

May

June July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

Tem

pera

ture

(∘C)

minus20

(a)

Jan

Feb

Mar

chAp

rilM

ayJu

ne July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Hum

idity

()

Rain

fall

(mm

)

(b)




Width(mm)

Length(mm)

Height(mm)



Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Culti

vars


Tokaloglu




Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Tokaloglu

Culti

vars

















References























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014

























3080

130180230280330380

Jan

Feb

Mar

ch

April

May

June July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

Tem

pera

ture

(∘C)

minus20

(a)

Jan

Feb

Mar

chAp

rilM

ayJu

ne July

Aug

Sept Oct

Nov Dec

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Hum

idity

()

Rain

fall

(mm

)

(b)




Width(mm)

Length(mm)

Height(mm)



Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Culti

vars


Tokaloglu




Beliana

Feriana

Canino

Precoce de Colomer

Rouge de Sernhac

Macar

Tokaloglu

Culti

vars

















References























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014






































References























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014










































Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014


























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014
























Documents

Research Article Yield and Fruit Characteristics of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ija/2013/687345.pdf · InternationalJournalofAgronomy 3,0 8,0 13,0 18,0 23,0 28,0 33,0 38,0 Jan