Assessment of frost resistance in new cultivars and breeding forms of apricot developed at the Nikita Botanical Gardens

Background. The apricot crop has a very short period of winter dormancy, and in terms of the speed of springtime development of generative buds, it is the leader among stone fruit crops. In the southern fruit-growing zones, warming is often observed in January – February, which helps the plant to emerge from deep dormancy and start vegetating. Apricot flower buds and flowers perish in the winter-spring period with minor subsequent cold snaps, which is often the main limiting factor in industrial cultivation.

Materials and methods. The material consisted of 53 apricot genotypes developed by breeders at the Nikita Botanical Gardens, growing on the southern coast of Crimea (Yalta). The control was the zoned and widespread cultivar ‘Krymsky Amur’. Artificial freezing of branches was performed in a Memmert CTC-256 climate chamber (Germany) under different temperature conditions. Each freezing was considered one variant of the experiment. Then, the percentage of dead buds was calculated.

Results. The effect of winter frosts and recurrent spring frosts on 53 promising cultivars and breeding forms of apricot was assessed. The degree of their frost resistance was established under various temperature conditions and taking into account their morphogenesis. The analysis of the statistical processing of the freezing results showed that seven of the studied 53 apricot genotypes significantly exceeded the control cultivar ‘Krymsky Amur’ in terms of frost resistance.

Conclusion. Two cultivars with increased frost resistance and slow development rates of their generative system were selected. Taking into account their other characteristics (yield, fruit quality, resistance to diseases, drought, etc.), these genotypes can be used in breeding for frost resistance, and may be introduced into commercial production.

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