Agrometeorological Analysis on the Freeze Damage Occurrence of Yuzu Trees in Goheung, Jeonnam Province in 2018

Abstract

In 2018, severe diebacks have occurred on yuzu trees cultivated in Goheung, Jeonnam Province. On-farm surveys at 18 randomly selected orchards revealed the dieback incidence ranged from 7.5% to 100% with an average of 43.6%, and 56.6% of the affected yuzu trees were eventually killed. In order to find the reason for this sudden epidemic, we investigated the weather conditions that are exclusively distinct from previous years, hypothesizing that certain weather extremes might have caused the dieback epidemic on yuzu trees. Since different temperatures can cause freeze damage to plants depending on their dormancy stages, we investigated both periods when yuzu becomes hardy under deep dormancy (January-February) and when yuzu loses its cold hardiness (March-April). First, we found that daily minimum air temperatures below -10°C were recorded for 7 days in Goheung for January and February in 2018, while no occasions in 2017. In particular, there were two extreme temperature drops (-12.6°C and -11.5°C) beyond the yuzu cold hardiness limit in 2018. In addition, another occasion of two sudden temperature drops to nearly 0°C were occurred right after abnormally-warm-temperature-rises to 13°C of daily minimum air temperatures in mid-March and early April. In conclusion, we estimated that the possible damages by several extreme freeze events during the winter of 2018 could be a major cause of severe diebacks and subsequently killed the severely affected yuzu trees.

Keywords

• Dieback
• epidemic
• weather extreme