The effect of inflorescence number and distribution along the shoot on the level of fruit-set was studied using `ON' year olive trees with a high level of floral differentiation. Reduced levels and different inflorescence distribution patterns were created artificially by hand inflorescence thinning. In most cases, removal of up to 50% of the inflorescences had either no effect on the total amo...

Potential decreases in crop yield from reductions in bee-mediated pollination services threaten food production demands of a growing population. Many fruit and vegetable growers supplement their fields with bee colonies during crop bloom. The extent to which crop production requires supplementary pollination services beyond those provided by wild bees is not well documented. Pumpkin, Cucurbita ...

For production of high quality grape berries, the whole cluster should ripen at one time. The lack of uniform ripening within a cluster is termed "uneven ripening," and is characterized by the presence of green berries in an otherwise mature ripe cluster. Uneven ripening of 'Concord' is a major problem in the South, often prohibiting production. Northwest Arkansas is the southern boundary for c...

Compared with self-incompatible (SI) species, species that shift to self-compatibility (SC) are more likely to colonize a new habitat. Self-incompatibility and fruit-set failure have been widely reported in European populations of Linnaea borealis (twinflower), whereas at the eastern margin of its North American distribution it showed potential SC. We investigated the breeding system of L. bore...

fruit yoghurt is frequently made with fermented milk products; however, the use of fruit and its products may cause changes in the viscoelastic properties, syneresis and sensory properties of fruit yoghurt. one approach to improve these properties in fruit yoghurt is the use of thickening agents. this study investigated the effect of carboxymethyl cellulose and guar thickening agents on the pro...

Flushing, i.e. cyclic fluctuations in fruit yield, is an important problem in sweet pepper production. These fluctuations result from cyclic variations in fruit set. Therefore, the relationship between fruit set and plant sink and source strength was investigated in several greenhouse experiments. A decrease in plant source strength by decreasing inter-plant distance or light intensity or by le...

Among seasonal practices that affect grape quality, selective leaf removal at the cluster zone is accepted as a powerful technique to manipulate flavonoid content of grapes and wines. However, most of research on fruit-zone defoliation has been conducted under temperate climate and it remains uncertain if cluster exposure would be a recommendable practice in semiarid viticultural areas. In this...

optimal nutrition of grapevine is one of the most important factors that affect the quantity, quality and time of fruit ripening. to increase the quantity and quality of ‘askari’ cultivar, a factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted at shahrekord in 2010. treatments consisted of four levels of potassium sulfate fertilizer (zero, 300, 600 an...

Angiosperm fruits typically consist of pericarp and seed, which collectively function to maximize plant reproductive success. Within-fruit reproductive allocation has been scarcely examined across a wide range of fruit types and taxa although it is critical to the understanding of the evolution of fruit size and seed size. We investigated seed size, fruit size, seed number per fruit (SNF), and ...

High temperature tolerance is an important component of adaptation to arid and semiarid cropping environment in chili pepper. Two experiments were carried out to study the genetic variability among chili pepper for heat tolerance and morphophysiological traits and to estimate heritability and genetic advance expected from selection. There was a highly significant variation among the genotypes i...