Search Results
You are looking at 11 - 20 of 20 items for
- Author or Editor: Deborah Buszard x
Sixteen commercially grown strawberry cultivars with different degrees of resistance to red stele were evaluated for yield, plant characteristics and fruit quality. `Bounty', `Midway', and `Sparkle' had sufficient interior and exterior fruit color, good to satisfactory flavor and suitability for freezing. However, these cultivars as well as `Redcoat' lacked sufficient fruit firmness. `Bounty', `Redcoat', `Redchief and `Sparkle' had the highest yield in the three-year test. `Annapolis', `Earliglow' and `Scott' had reflexed calyx whereas `Allstar', `Annapolis', `Cornwallis', `Earllglow', `Guardian' and `Sunrise' were characterized by a raised neck suitable for mechanical dehulling. `Sunrise' appeared to be the only cultivar free of leaf scorch and leaf spot. `Tristar', `Redchief, `Lester', `Darrow' and `Arking' roots had the lowest incidence of red stele when planted in a naturally-infested field. No relationship between fruit characteristics was observed which suggests the necessity to examine each Individual tralt.
Inhibition of flower initiation by nearby developing fruits is one of the main causes of biennial bearing in apple trees. This localized inhibition may depend on a critical ratio of inhibitor and promoter hormones that inhibits flowering of apical meristems. A model is proposed to explain this phenomenon. In the model, it is assumed that seeds and leaves act as point sources and export inhibiting and promoting hormones to apical meristems. The model assumes critical ratios of promoting and inhibiting hormones determine whether an apical meristem flowers or not and this may be a cause of biennial bearing. Thus, the spatial arrangement of shoot apical meristems on a limb is perhaps critical in determining whether meristems initiate flower clusters. This article presents a novel framework to view the hormone hypotheses of biennial bearing in apple trees and how management strategies such as flower removal could be used to achieve regular numbers of flower clusters over consecutive years.
Three mathematical indices were developed to estimate: a) potential for early dollar return or early ripening (IE), b) concentrated cropping (IC), and deviation or similarity of a genotype to known cultivars (ID). Early ripening genotypes with high yield early in the season will have larger IE values than late genotypes with lower yield early in the season. Genotypes with few harvests will have larger IC values than those requiring several harvests. The ID index helps to identify and group genotypes with similar characteristics. These indices condense large numbers of values or arrays of traits into single index values, thereby simplifying genotype comparisons.
Frozen fruit of five locally grown strawberry cultivars and a recent introduction were compared to imported berries for making jam. Line scales were used to evaluate sensory attributes. Cultivars differed only in acidity, fruity flavor, and berry integrity. Jam produced with Quebec-grown berries was less acidic and more fruity tasting than that made from imported Mexican berries. `Kent' had better fruit integrity than Mexican berries, followed by `Chambly', `Midway', `Bounty', and `Glooscap'. Frozen local strawberries were preferred to Mexican berries for making jam. Overall impression was better for Quebec-grown strawberries with the exception of `Midway', which had lower overall impression than Mexican berries.
The study examined the main and interactive effects of soil-applied fertilizers [nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)] from a 12-year (six production cycles) field experiment conducted at Kemptown, Nova Scotia (Canada). It also recommends the optimum rate for improved growth and harvestable yield of wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.). The fertilizers were applied in a single application at the onset of shoot emergence in early spring of each sprout year at rates of 0, 12, 30, 48, and 60 kg·ha−1 N using urea (2000 only) or ammonium sulfate, 0, 18, 45, 78, and 90 kg·ha−1 P using triple super phosphate, 0, 12, 30, 48, and 60 kg·ha−1 K using potassium chloride. Response surface analysis of the data indicated that 35 kg·ha−1 N, 40 kg·ha−1 P, and 30 kg·ha−1 K were optimum for fruit production and maintaining stem lengths <20 cm, and resulted in an average of 54% more floral buds, 25% more berries per stem, and 13% greater yield than previous recommend rates of 20 kg·ha−1 N, 10 kg·ha−1 P, and 15 kg·ha−1 K. The higher fertilizers rates cost an extra $80/ha but increased net profits by $490/ha. Findings of this study could contribute toward better farm profitability in areas with similar growing conditions. They also suggest that modifications to existing fertilizer rates be made for Central Nova Scotia wild blueberry.
Tree fruit growers use chemical and mechanical thinning techniques in an attempt to maintain regular annual flower production and maximum repeatable yields of varieties susceptible to biennial bearing. If the percentage of floral buds an apple tree could produce without causing yield depression in subsequent years was known, it would be possible to better manage crop-thinning regimes. This study proposes that thinning is a partial transfer of potential flower buds from one year to the next year and estimates the maximum repeatable sequence of flower buds without biennial bearing. The conceptual framework is tested on a 50-year simulation with 0% to 100% transfer of thinned flower buds. Results indicate that the maximum repeatable sequence of flower buds rises sharply when the final years of the orchard approach and declines when the percent transfer of thinned buds is near 0%.