<b>Dormancy of 'Imperial Gala' apple and 'Hosui' pear tree buds in a region of low chill occurrence

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the dormancy dynamic of Imperial Gala apple tree buds and Hosui pear tree buds in a region of low chill occurrence. Experiments were conducted between April and August in 2007 and 2008. Branches were collected every two weeks from an orchard at Porto Amazonas (Paraná State, Brazil). On the last sampling day, an additional set of branches was collected and refrigerated between 4°C and 7°C for 1,440 hours. Dormancy was evaluated using a biological test of single node cuttings isolated in growth chambers (GC) at 25°C with 16 hours of light exposure. The number of chill hours (CH) and chill units (CU) for the region were recorded. The two species were evaluated in separate experiments. We used 11 completely randomized treatments with four replicas for each species. The peak of endodormancy for the Imperial Gala apple tree buds occurred in early June 2007 and from middle June to early July in 2008. The endodormancy of the Hosui pear tree buds oscillated between April and August in 2007 and peaked between June and early July in 2008.

Keywords

• Malus domestica
• Pyrus communis
• ecophysiology
• budburst
• endodormancy